The More Things Change
by kjayla
Summary: The more things change the more they stay the same. Her presence in his life changed everything-but in the end did she change anything? For Obi-Wan she did. I could really use some feedback!
1. Thank You Princess

**AN: Any recognizable characters do not belong to me. I'm just having fun with them. You can thank George Lucas for all of them (JA series also referenced, thank Jude Watson for that). Disclaimer applies to entire story.**

Lanae's feet seemed to pound on the hard ground as she raced along the deserted streets. She mentally cursed her short legs, and then laughed, she really shouldn't know those curse words, and her legs were a perfectly normal size-for a five year old that is.

Which was the problem, she was FIVE! She shouldn't be the one who had to save the Carment family. But she was the one, she was the only one.

She raced along, coming up to the Carment home, knocking softly she waited impatiently for someone to answer… "_Please don't let me be too late"_ she thought desperately. She couldn't bear to have any more deaths on her shoulders. _"Please oh please."_ She was rewarded by a crack in the doorframe as Mrs. Carment peered out nervously. Spotting Lanae she blanched in fear and hurried her in. It was a blessing and a curse for Lanae to show up at the door, and they both knew it.

"They're coming for Micah and Calli." It was the only explanation that Lanae needed to give.

"Why?" Calli whispered from the corner.

"Your dad was deemed a failure, your deaths will be a reminder to not fail again." Lanae looked down in shame. Oh how she hated to say these things.

Mrs. Carment had a blank look in her face, it wasn't completely unexpected, the so-called king declared many men failures, and the torture and death of their children was almost always the answer. "What do we need to do?" It was her job to keep her children safe; it was her duty as their mother.

Lanae looked ashamed. "You have to split up, let me take Calli, Janet, and Ryan to a family on the other side of the river, they'll be safe there. You need to take Micah and Jeremy, join the Whitlock family."

"Split us up? Why?" the question was on all their lips.

"The king will be looking for your family, a family with a mother with two girls and three boys. He will not be looking for two different families. For all his genius, he rarely thinks to use his brain."

Janet was the first to respond "You're right, if we're going to keep Calli and Micah safe, we have to make sacrifices. We'll see each other again. We will!" She said it with such conviction that it was almost believable.

Lanae took that as her cue, removing the knapsack from her back she quickly pulled out a map, which she handed to Mrs. Carment showing her the safest way to get to the Whitlock home. "We don't have much time, we need to go."

The family looked at her, then looked at each other. Goodbyes were a luxury that no one in this country had. The king had made sure of that. With one last glance, Mrs. Carment took Micah and Jeremy and led them out the door. At the last moment she turned and whispered. "Thank you Princess"

Lanae merely nodded.


	2. If Things Had Been Different

…a tyrannical king, who uses the lives of children to retain the loyalty of the parents, forcing each citizen to wear an electric collar that the king can then use to torture or kill the citizen, is enslaving the people of this planet. Qui-Gon read the report with distinct disgust. The senate had received reports of tyranny on the planet Macinar and had decided to send in the Jedi, he and Master Mace Windu had been dispatched together. Based on the reports it was up to the two of them to either convince the king to end this tyranny or take matters into their own hands and end this tyranny themselves.

Interestingly enough, the king was only a temporary ruler. Macinar had been ruled by female heirs for centuries, his wife had been the ruler until her mysterious death three years before, and when his daughter turned twelve she would take over from her father and become the next ruler. If the daughter were to die the king would lose all power and a new queen would be found and her descendants would take over the crown. However there was very little information about the future queen, only that she had been two at the time her mother had died. Due to her mothers death she was already in possession of the royal life-jewels.

The life-jewels were a strange phenomenon that no one living could understand. There were 5 life-jewels composing one necklace. Four years after receiving the necklace the queen was required to give one jewel to someone that she would entrust her life to. After that point, the queen herself would have to decide the proper time to entrust three more jewels to three different people. She would keep the fifth jewel until the time of her death, at which time the jewels would find their way to the next queen. Those people entrusted with the life-jewels could quite literally end the life of the queen by disowning the jewels. It was a rather precarious situation for any ruler.

Qui-Gon roused himself from his musings. The matter of the life-jewels were interesting no doubt, but were of little importance to his mission. Glancing at the chrono Qui-Gon realized he had less than an hour until their arrival to the planet. Glancing over he saw Master Windu deep in meditation. He frowned, he preferred going on solo missions, and he was largely successful as a solo knight, the fact that Yoda had sent both Jedi was slightly unsettling. Brushing away his momentary qualms Qui-Gon once again settled himself into meditation.

Descending the ramp onto the planet Qui-Gon was surprised by the sullen atmosphere that greeted the two Jedi. Glancing around he saw several men with an electric band around their neck, each looking at the two Jedi with a look a kin to hope and at the same time utter dejection. It was bewildering to see the two expressions mixed together in such a way.

"Halt" One of the men stepped forward. "What business do you have on Macinar?"

"We are diplomats sent from the senate, we have been instructed to speak with King Treaty concerning the welfare of this planet."

The man just stared at them. "The King" he spat "Has declared that he has no desire to speak with you." There was a moment pause. "If you do not leave immediately he will deem each of these men to be failures."

Again there was a pause, before another man cut in. "If you do not leave our children will die… but if you do leave…" he glanced around "we need help. But we do not know how you can help us, our families lives depends on us. We can't just let them die!"

Qui-Gon glanced over at Mace. He looked thoughtful. "How many terminals are there in the area?"

"There is one other, but all diplomats are being turned away."

Master Windu smiled "So if two men were to arrive to… let's say sightsee, there would be no reason for the king to be alerted to their presence?"

The men stared at them. "That is perhaps the worst plan I have ever heard." The first man said. "And it should work perfectly. We will tell the king that we sent you on your way." With that Master Windu bowed and re-entered the ship.

"What are we going to do if we cannot speak to the king?" Qui-Gon asked

Master Windu sighed, "We have been sent to free the people from tyranny, I suggest we do just that."

Qui-Gon nodded "And I suppose you have a fail proof plan to do that."

Mace smiled "Of course I do, I call it making it up as I go."

There was an underlying tension rippling through the force as Mace and Qui-Gon entered the capital city. In it Mace could almost see the lives of the people, mostly the children, hanging in the balance. Walking through the people Mace was saddened to see the collar resting around each persons neck, seeming to weigh them down and discourage them. A few citizens looked at his own neck with longing, as though remembering the days in which they too could walk around freely.

"Look mom! Those men aren't wearing necklaces!" A little boy laughed. Mace watched as a young boy toddled forward towards them. "Can you take my necklace off too? I don't want to wear it anymore"

Mace and Qui-Gon knelt before the boy simultaneously, he looked about seven, not old enough to feel such desperation. "We don't have the power to take your collar off." Qui-Gon said quietly.

"Oh. I see." The boy's shoulders visibly slumped. "I just wanted to be free too." His mother approached them quietly.

"It's not safe to walk these streets without a collar, the king doesn't care if you are citizens or not, if you are found without a collar" she hesitated "well you won't be without a collar for very long."

"Would he stop us from leaving the planet?" Qui-Gon asked

The woman laughed bitterly "He'll do anything he pleases if it helps him. You should leave as soon as you can."

"We can't." Mace sighed, "We have… things we need to do here on Macinar."

She studied them for a moment "Come stay the night at my house. My name is Rachel, Rachel Carment, this is my son Micah. I think we can help you."

Mace exchanged a look with Qui-Gon. If the woman was right, it could be dangerous to loiter around, and she could prove to have valuable information. He looked back at the woman, "We thank you, that would be most kind."

"I know I said I could help you, that's not quite true. But I know of someone who can. She helped me and my sons find refuge with the Whitlocks. She comes occasionally to make sure we have enough money to support both of our families. My husband can no longer provide for us without putting us in danger."

"What may I ask, do you think this woman might help us with?" Qui-Gon asked her, keeping his face empty.

"There are no sights to see on Macinar, the King has shut down all business with other worlds, there is almost no reason two men might come here to Macinar, where we are all virtually enslaved. Unless of course you are the two diplomats that have a price on their head." Rachel smiled at them, "the king overlooks the women of this country, and so long as the men are not aware of your presence they have no need to turn you into the king. And even then, the men are unlikely to do so, they want their children to be free and the king gone."

Mace smiled, "That's all well and good, but again, how do you think this woman might help us?"

Rachel laughed, "This _woman_ knows how to destroy the collars, without the collars we can save ourselves, but none of us are willing to put the lives of our children on the line."

"If this woman knows how to destroy the collars, why does she not do so." Mace questioned, "Can we really rely on her to help us if she does so little to help you in the first place."

"She has saved hundreds of lives, my sons included. It is not that she is unwilling to destroy the collars, it is that she is unable." Rachel sighed "But you can question her tonight if you are so inclined. Just don't be too shocked when you meet her, she's not what you would expect."

She turned and left them to converse amongst themselves. Qui-Gon turned to Mace. "So now that we know not to expect anything, what do you expect?"

Mace laughed, "I've seen some strange things over the years, I don't expect to be to surprised. I'm more curious as to why she is so _unable_ to destroy the collars."

"I feel as though there is more to this than we currently understand."

"I agree" Mace sighed "I suggest we meditate for now and wait for this young woman to present herself."

Mace was deep in meditation, delving into the force to find a state of calm in this otherwise confusing and saddening situation. Buried deep he could sense a strong beacon in the force somewhere in the vicinity, it was a calming light, forcing the sorrow away from those around it. It was quite remarkable… and if he wasn't mistaken it was headed towards his and Qui-Gon's location. He resurfaced from his meditation to find Qui-Gon doing the same.

It was not a minute later that there was a soft knock on the door. Rachel came out of the kitchen where she had been cooking with another woman, Marie Whitlock. She opened the door and ushered someone in. The first thing Mace noticed was long red hair, falling to the waist of the… girl? A young girl? So this was not there source, it was merely coincidence that she should come at such an hour.

"Hello Mrs. Carment, I brought you the wages your husband would have given you were it not for your quick departure." Mace flinched, surely this could NOT be the woman that was meant to help them destroy the collars, she appeared to be no older than seven, if that. There were several bruises on her face disappearing under her dress. She didn't wear a collar.

"These men… they are here to… destroy the collars." Rachel told the girl. The girl turned to the men, eyes appraising them in a way that belied her young age.

"I can tell you how to do it, whether you have the skill to do it is another matter altogether."

Qui-Gon smiled thinly "I would hope our skills our up to the test."

"Then you are… the diplomats the king is frightened of, come to steal the throne away from him." She said the word diplomat with a touch of humor, as though she knew that they were not diplomat by trade.

"We are not hear to steal the throne from anyone" Mace corrected "We are merely here to ensure the well-being of the citizens of this planet."

The girl smiled sadly, "Well than I wish you the best of luck. I wish I had known of your coming, I would have brought you the plans detailing how to destroy the collars." She trailed off pensively. "Can you… can you feel things without touching them?"

Secretly Qui-Gon felt surprised, this wasn't exactly the normal topic of conversation. "We… are not incapable of doing so." He supplied.

She raised her eyebrows. "That's not good enough. I can feel without touching, I suppose it would be better to ask, can you manipulate without touching. My…" She paused then corrected "The controller to the collars can not be manipulated by touch, the king has made the controls impossible to destroy physically, to destroy it, you need to manipulate the energy within it until it ceases to function." She frowned again. "I know I can do it. I can feel the energy within it… but I can't manipulate it, not completely! Not yet!" Rachel knelt next to her, trying to reassure her.

Mace raised his eyebrows "It's that simple." He sounded surprised. Nothing was ever that simple.

"It will kill the king" this was said in monotone "possibly the princess as well."

"Why? How?" Qui-Gon asked, noticing the horror appear in Rachel's eyes as she looked at the girl.

"The king uses his life source to keep the collars going, he has… at times, used his daughter's as well, the collars are intricately connected with the collars." The girl sighed, "From what I know of the princess she would give her life if it would save her people."

Mace frowned, killing an innocent girl was not part of his plans. He didn't like it. Not one bit. But something needed to be done. "Can you take us to the collars controls?"

"You have five minutes to be ready." She smiled "I'm Lanae by the way."

"Mace Windu"

"Qui-Gon Jinn"

She smiled again and turned back to Rachel.

"What do you think?" Qui-Gon asked Mace. "Should we do this? It would be easy to manipulate the energy… it's obvious she has force potential and it's the force that she is using to feel the energy. But can we let a girl die to do our duty?"

Mace frowned "I feel… I feel as though we have no choice. It needs to be done."

Getting into the castle was ridiculously easy. Lanae led them to a secret passage that brought them into the castle. She had paused there though. And then as though rethinking something she had ushered them to a room.

"If you can successfully manipulate the energy in the controller it will take the kings life first. Which will make the princess the queen." She sighed again "Which will make me Queen." She hurried on, as though to stop them from interrupting, although to be honest, neither Qui-Gon nor Mace could have interrupted if they wanted to, they were completely blindsided by that revelation. "Before my mom died, she had created a piece of legislation that would remove the queen as the ruling body and create a more senatorial ruling body. My father wasn't happy with this and tried to convince her otherwise. When she would not agree… well he decided her death could be profitable for him. The queens of Macinar have always been blessed with intellect at a young age." She laughed bitterly "but even then I should not remember everything that happened when I was two. My mom says it is a blessing that will allow me to serve many, I consider it more a curse." Again she trailed off "Anyways, as soon as you destroy the collars I will wait until I feel my strength dwindling, which will mean my father is dead, making me queen, giving me the authority to make this legislation official."

"By small and simple things shall great things come to pass. You are living proof of that." Mace nodded to the small girl, "I am honored to have known you even if it is for a few moments." To be honest Mace was astounded, who would have thought a 5 year old would have the strength and commitment to do her duty despite the odds. Again he could recognize the strength of her spirit in the force. Perhaps if things were different…

Qui-Gon nodded in agreement "It has been an honor." She would have made an excellent Jedi… if only things had been different.

Again Qui-Gon thought it was ridiculously easy to get to the control room. They had decided that Mace would be the one to use the force to shut down the controllers. Qui-Gon would be on guard for any possible problems.

Qui-Gon stood in front of Master Windu facing the door they had come in by, Lanae stood behind Master Windu, and for the first time since Qui-Gon and Mace had met her she seemed frightened. Master Windu knelt down and began his meditation no sooner had he done so then a group of men pounded through the door. Qui-Gon readied himself for a barrage of blaster shots, but was surprised when he only had to deflect shots from one blaster. The man turned to his companions angrily. "It's their deaths or yours!"

The men looked at Qui-Gon and then turned again to their leader. It was then that Qui-Gon realized that each of them was wearing a collar, each of them but the leader. He turned again in anger towards Qui-Gon blaster coming up… as the controller imploded.

The man fell to his knees, the blood draining from his face. So this was the king. The man that was so intent upon controlling and destroying this planet. It was a shame Qui-Gon thought, that a man with obvious intellect would waste it bending others to his will.

Lanae fell to her knees gasping. Qui-Gon watched in horror as the blood began to fade from her face. Time seemed to slow as she shakily signed her name to the legislation and pushed the datapad towards him. And then she fell.


	3. The World Failed Her

Mace supposed he shouldn't be surprised by the sheer amount of love descending upon the girl in his arms. From what he had heard the girl had arrived at countless houses in the nick of time, coming to save children barely older than herself.

Qui-Gon and Mace had contacted the senate with the information from the datapad, they were sending officials to work out the first election of Macinar. The people were overjoyed, and they considered the princess their hero. And they refused to call her anything other than princess.

She was their hero, but she couldn't stay here. She was officially an orphan, and while plenty of families who would take her in… she had yet to awaken from her coma, and no one on Macinar could help her. And so the decision had been made, to take the princess to Coruscant, and if, no when, she woke up they would let her decide her fate. Quietly Mace mused if this was a chance for things to be different.

She felt herself slowly regaining, and fought to remain in the comfort of obliviousness, where she was allowed to be the five year old that she really was. She could feel the people around her, and she could feel that they cared for her, and that frightened her. People did not CARE for her. Not since… not since her mothers death.

She begged the darkness to envelop her again, but she could sense that it wasn't to be. Sighing she opened her eyes to find herself in what appeared to be a medical room, although where she was not sure.

"Nice of you to join us in the land of the living" Lanae turned her head to see… a female… something. She frowned, on Macinar everyone had been strictly humanoid, although she had heard stories of thousands of different races around the galaxy. Which meant she was no longer on Macinar… interesting. If she could muster up the desire to care.

"It's nice to be living I suppose."

"You can stay here another night if you want too." The lady smiled understandingly, "I'm healer T'Pal, you're in the Jedi Temple on Coruscant"

Lanae blinked "Did mister Windu and mister Qui-Gon bring me here?"

Healer T'Pal smiled "Yes, they did, Master Windu will be here to see you tomorrow morning, but according to your vital signs you have recovered to perfect health, so if you want you can join the other five year olds in the crèche"

Lanae just looked at her. Crèche? What was that? As though sensing her confusion the lady smiled at her "It's where all of the children play together."

"Do I have to?" She wasn't ready, she couldn't face people. Not yet. Maybe not ever.

"No if you want you can stay here another night." Another understanding smile. "I'll leave you now, try to get a little more sleep." With that she bustled out the door.

Lanae watched her, and settled back onto the bed, but she could already tell that sleep would be elusive. She searched within her for a semblance of peace, but all she felt was lost. She hadn't felt this lost in so long. But before she had had a mission. What was she supposed to do with herself. She laughed bitterly, midlife crisis at five… wasn't she a sorry case.

She glanced to the door. Well it wouldn't hurt anything would it?

She slipped off the bed and out the door. It was quiet out here, she started walking passing several Jedi as she meandered along not sure what she was looking for, but at the same time aware that she was looking for SOMETHING. She passed by what looked like a datapad library, a cafeteria, and what she assumed was the crèche, she had quickly departed once she had seen so many children her age.

She had seen a beautiful garden but there had been too many people in there so she had continued on her way, slightly disappointed, she had felt the peace radiating from the garden. As she moved away from the garden she felt the loneliness within her grow larger, nearly engulfing her.

So she just kept walking… trying her hardest to bury the sudden fear that was creeping up on her.

She found another garden, smaller than the one she had found before, and emptier. Walking along she felt part of her fear dissipate. She turned the corner around a hedge and saw a boy meditating as she had seen several other Jedi doing. He was radiating peace and happiness, that was pushing away her own fear, and bringing a peace she had not felt in a long time.

And suddenly she felt five again. With the impunity that only the young have, she crept up next to the boy and snuggled onto his lap, and slept.

Obi-Wan roused himself from his meditations feeling relaxed and peaceful. And then froze. Somehow a girl had found her way onto his lap. He frowned, he hadn't thought he had gone so deeply into his meditation that someone could literally crawl onto his lap.

But now Obi-Wan was in a pickle. Did he wake up the girl… or did he just kneel here and wait for her to wake herself up. Now that he asked the question it seemed obvious. He wasn't some nursemaid the girl could go sleep with the other younglings, somewhere that was NOT his lap.

Almost as though she had been awakened by his thoughts the girl in his lap stirred and turned her face towards him, eyes opening he found himself staring into piercing green eyes.

"Hi"

"You're on my lap." He said incredulously, as though he thought she might be a hallucination

Lanae giggled she was so peaceful, and then his words sunk in. What was she doing acting like a five year old, it didn't matter that she was a five year old, that was no excuse! Quickly she rolled off his lap feeling embarrassed.

Obi-Wan quickly stood up, feeling a little unnerved the girl had rolled off his lap, but now she just sat there staring at him. As he moved to go, she suddenly whimpered, as though frightened of being left alone.

"Can I come with you?" it was a whisper.

"You should probably return to the crèche, the masters are probably looking for you by now." He felt uncomfortable again. She just stared at him than shook her head.

"I was in the hospital rooms, I've never been to the crèche." She pointedly refused to mention that she had passed the rooms, she didn't want to go there. At least not right now.

"Well than go back to the hospital rooms."

"Please" She didn't want to be alone, and she didn't want to be with strangers. Although this boy was technically just as much of a stranger. But she had felt the peace radiating from him, and that told something deep inside herself that he could be trusted.

He looked at her, about to tell her no. But he looked in her eyes and saw something there, something that spoke of loneliness and fear, and somehow he knew that the world had failed her, the world had failed to keep her safe and innocent. And in his ten-year-old mind, he knew that he could not fail her too.

Arriving at the ten-year-old dorms with a little girl in tow was a novel experience for Obi-Wan. His age mates kept giving him strange looks, which wasn't really unexpected. Garen however took it in stride, bouncing up to Obi-Wan with his normal exuberance.

"Master Yoda canceled our classes tomorrow! We get to sleep in! We're completely free!" He crowed.

Reeft popped up by Garen "Which means it's a holo-vid marathon night!" His grin nearly split his face. "We invited Bant up to join us."

Garen took over again "It's just going to be the four of us!" Then he glanced towards Lanae. "or five?"

"We met up in the gardens, and… well…" he trailed off, uncertain.

"The five of us it is!" Reeft announced decisively. Although Obi-Wan could tell he was puzzled as to why a five year old was practically attached to his side.

Bant chose that moment to show up, if she was surprised to see Lanae she didn't say so. Instead they all crowded into Obi-Wan's room to start the marathon.

After some quick introductions Garen turned to Lanae "What's your favorite holo-vid kid?" Lanae stared then looked sheepish.

"I've never seen a holo-vid."

That collected a few horrified gasps. "No more will you be able to say that!" Reeft declared with mock solemnity. And so it began.

Lanae was enthralled, her father had never approved of holo-vids, instead he had hired instructors to teach her all manners of etiquette. Her tutors had liked her, but had been disgruntled that they had to teach a toddler the proper way to rule a country, at least the proper way according to King Treaty, which they had found severely lacking. And so they taught her the "real" way to rule a kingdom. Needless to say she had not had much of a childhood.

But even the novelty of holo-vids was incapable of keeping her awake. She fell asleep snuggled into Bant's side by the third vid, and for the second time in one day, she was at peace.

"So who is she?" Garen was the first to ask.

Obi-Wan shrugged, "I don't know, I was meditating and when I came out she was asleep on my lap. She said she had been in the med rooms, and that she didn't belong in the crèche. I probably should have made her go back… but… I don't know."

"You were right to let her stay with you." Bant said "I don't know who she is, but she seems older than her years." She said it ponderously, and Obi-Wan was struck with the wisdom of her words. Too wise for a ten-year-old.

"Hopefully we don't get in trouble when they find her missing." Reeft grinned "It might be interesting tomorrow morning."

"Well if that's the case we should get to sleep." Bant said pointedly. With that she shifted slightly, keeping Lanae close to her, "Night."

"Hey, this is MY bed." Obi-Wan protested.

"Get over it." She muttered back.

And they slept.

"Was she doing alright?" Mace asked Healer T'Pal.

"When I left her she was doing fine, a little tired of course, but altogether fine." She replied, "She's in the second room on the left."

Mace nodded to her and headed to the indicated room. Opening the door he paused "When was the last time you checked on her." He said, hiding the sudden tension he felt.

"It was about six, I left her to get some sleep. Is she still sleeping?"

Mace shook his head "No, she's not in there."

There was a pause. "I suggest we find her then."

Knights in the hallways were stopped and questioned, none recalled seeing a petite red head roaming the halls the night before. The tension Mace felt began to increase. Certainly the girl wouldn't leave the temple. He had thought about checking on her the night before, but with council meetings and such he had delayed it until morning. He commed Qui-Gon "You haven't seen Lanae by chance have you?"

"She's not in the med center?"

"No, and we aren't sure when she left it either." There was static on the other end.

"I'll take a look around."

The crèche was checked, none of the masters had seen her, none of the initiates had seen her either. Mace was worried, the gardens had been checked, the archives had been looked over, and she still had not been found. He heard a tapping noise behind him. "Master Yoda" He bowed.

"Come to see the girl I have. Missing is she?" He questioned, seemingly unperturbed.

Mace nodded. "We are not sure where she has gone."

Yoda smiled, "At peace she is, come to us she will."

Mace frowned, while Yoda might not be worried, he wasn't particularly reassured by his words. He continued his search anyways.

It was only five minutes later that his comm buzzed "Lanae came back to the med center, I've called off the search, she brought friends" it was healer T'Pal's voice. Mace felt relief flood him.

When he arrived at the med center he saw Lanae sitting between two of the ten-year old initiates. Lanae was staring at Yoda as though he were the most amazing thing she had ever seen. Healer T'Pal was currently scolding her for leaving the med center, although he doubted Lanae heard a word being said.

Lanae's attention snapped to Mace. "Hello Mister Windu sir." She looked a little sheepish. "Thank you for… not leaving me on Macinar." She seemed slightly confused, as though she weren't sure WHY he had not left her on Macinar. Qui-Gon entered the room behind him. "And thank you as well, Mister Jinn sir." She quickly added.

"It was our pleasure. Although I could not say the same for this morning, where exactly did you go last night?" Mace asked, keeping his voice stern, although he felt no frustration at the girl.

She blinked. And then shrugged. "I just walked, and then I found Obi-Wan, and then I followed him, then we watched holo-vids." Her face suddenly beamed "and they said we were friends!" It was the way she said the last word that broke his heart. Five year olds shouldn't worry about not having friends. Obi-Wan and Bant looked a little confused and a little surprised that she was so excited at the prospect.

Yoda spoke up "Good it is, friends to have." Lanae looked at him again, and Mace had to stifle a laugh at the queer expression on her face, one of bewilderment and a strange adoration. "Ready are you the future to face?" Yoda asked.

"What's going to happen to me now?" It was said in a whisper, a whisper full with fear and wonder.


	4. Our Secret It Will Remain

**AN: I'm not really keeping with any specific timeline, I am just going to pick and choose what stories I use, it doesn't mean that the rest of it isn't happening, it just means I'm not mentioning it.**

Lanae watched as Qui-Gon signaled for Bant and Obi-Wan to follow him out of the med room. Leaving her with Mister Mace and the small green… troll. She wanted to protest, she didn't want to be left alone, but then stopped. There was no need to be afraid.

"What do you want?" Mace asked her gently.

"What do I want?" She asked startled, do something that SHE wanted.

"There are several available options, you could return to Macinar, several families offered to take you in there, there are always a plethora of orphanages if you want to disappear from the princess radar, you have force potential, if you wanted it we could train you to be a Jedi. Given your background it is more than likely that we could find you a senatorial apprenticeship." Mace paused "We realize this is a rather difficult decision to make considering…" How was he supposed to finish that- considering she was a five-year-old princess who had already saved her planet from ruin? "Considering all that has happened recently."

"Do you EVER smile?" The question was blunt.

"Excuse me?" Mace blinked several times, where had that come from?

"Do orphans smile a lot? What about senators? Who smiles more often?"

"They all smile. Everyone SMILES." Mace replied bewildered.

"Happy you can be whatever you decide. Comes happiness from within it does." Yoda cut in gravely.

Lanae turned towards Yoda again, silently watching him, as though considering what he had said. "I don't like politics." She thought again "And I don't want to live on Macinar." Another pause "Will you teach me about the Jedi?"

Yoda turned and hobbled off, "Come little one, about the Jedi you will learn."

Lanae beamed and scampered to catch up with him, leaving Mace to muse on his new thoughts on happiness.

Sitting in Yoda's apartments Lanae listened attentively as Yoda detailed all of the trials that went into becoming a Jedi, she listened thoughtfully, he seemed to want to impress upon her the difficulty that came with being a Jedi. When he finished she looked at him "Is it worth it?"

"Hmm?" Yoda "Is it for you worth it? Know that only you do. A difficult path the Jedi walk, no attachment, constant service, put away yourself for the sake of others, not all can be a Jedi. No no… not all can be a Jedi."

"But we help others be happy? We make a difference?" She replied earnestly.

"We… consider you already the life of Jedi? Hmm?" Yoda smiled, not in the least surprised.

"Happiness comes from serving others, from loving and caring." She paused biting her lip "and I want to be happy."

"Then happy you should be."

"So what do I do to be accepted as a Jedi?"

"The robes of the Jedi initiate you already wear. Now teach you we will the way of the force."

A look of horror crossed Lanae's face "Will I be able to catch up with the other initiates?"

"Classes in the force, lightsaber, and the code you must take, skip I think you can the math and language. Once caught up you are, those classes you will join." Lanae beamed at him, and then hugged him before drawing away sheepishly.

"Sorry, I was excited."

Yoda smiled again "Our secret it will remain."

"So she'll become a Jedi." Qui-Gon and Mace were settled into Yoda's room.

"Yes, a Jedi she will become."

"It will take her a few months to catch up I suppose." Qui-Gon mused, "Perhaps three or four, the other initiates started at 4 after all, and their classes certainly aren't advanced by any means."

"A month I will give her."

"One month to learn what everyone else learned in one year?" Qui-Gon was incredulous.

"She is rather dedicated, I imagine she could do far more if she thought it was necessary, she doesn't seem to let difficulties faze her." Mace leaned forward "The hardest thing will be teaching her to trust, I don't think she truly trusts anyone yet."

"Learn to trust she will, her nature it is to love and trust."

Both Qui-Gon and Mace nodded, they could see that.

Obi-Wan's classes were advancing quickly as a few of his fellow students began to be chosen as padawans. It was an exciting time for his class, as they realized that they were almost there, it was almost time for them to have their OWN masters.

He had seen Lanae a few times in the past few weeks, shuffling along with her new classmates, he didn't think of it much, he and his friends had been there for her on the first night, but now she had friends her own age. And so he allowed the event of week's prior fade from his mind as interesting but inconsequential.

So he was surprised when he and Garen found her trailing them on their way to lunch. "Can we help you?" Obi-Wan asked uncomfortably

She paused for a moment, and then turned and hurried away.

Garen looked over at him and shrugged, "Guess it wasn't important." Obi-Wan nodded, and after one more glance in the direction she had run, he and Garen turned and continued down to lunch.

"So Bant, what are you doing this afternoon with your free period?" Reeft was sitting across from him talking to Bant.

"I'm giving a swimming lesson, a certain five-year-old we all know said she had never learned how to swim, and asked if I would teach her."

"Why didn't she ask one of the masters in charge of swimming?" Garen asked "Any one of them would teach her."

Bant laughed, "I got the impression she didn't particularly like asking for help."

"So she asked you? Technically she asked you for help."

"I think we proved ourselves worthy of being asked for help, we helped her when she needed it."

Garen turned to Obi-Wan "So do you think she wanted to ask us for help of some sort?"

Obi-Wan just shrugged. "Who knows, maybe she just wanted to thank us."

"Well either way, you three are all invited to the swimming lesson."

Reeft grinned "An excuse to go swimming? I'm SO in!"

Garen, Reeft, and Obi-Wan arrived late to the swimming lesson to see Bant teaching Lanae how to float, or trying to teach her. Lanae seemed to be struggling with the concept.

Garen swam over "How's it coming?"

Bant looked over at him, "It's coming fine." But she said it a tad tersely.

"How long have you been working on floating?" He asked

Bant turned to him "Forty-five minutes!" she hissed

Garen looked surprised, "wow… that's a long time… no progress?"

Reeft and Obi-Wan swam over joining the three that were already in the water.

Reeft turned to Lanae "What's the problem?" He said it so gently that it surprised his friends, Reeft was a nice guy, but he wasn't known for being all that mature.

Lanae looked ashamed "I can't see what's around me, I have no control, it frightens me."

"Sense it with the force." Garen looked at her strangely, as though that were obvious.

Lanae glared at him "Well I would, if I knew HOW. I've only been training for a few weeks, I can't feel anything unless I concentrate really hard, and I can't concentrate when I'm trying to float on my back with no control!"

Bant cut in, "How's this, Garen and Obi-Wan will help you strengthen your tie with the force, and after you've improved Reeft and I will help you with your swimming again."

She had barely finished when she was nearly suffocated by a little girls arms, who than turned and hugged the three boys before running out of the pool and into the fresher.

The three boys looked at Bant, who shrugged. "I guess that was a yes than."

"She seemed a little emotional" Reeft remarked.

Garen nodded, "I heard Master Windu telling one of the other council members that she had been through a lot before coming here. Which is probably one of the reasons she seems so afraid of losing control."

They all nodded, and then began swimming, but even as they messed around Obi-Wan reflected on a pair of green eyes that spoke of hurt and pain, and remembered thinking that the world had failed them.

And so the classes began, Obi-Wan and Garen tried to teach her how to feel the force, which wasn't easy. While they had been taught how to feel the force around them, and listen and respond to it, they discovered that it was harder to teach how to do so. But Lanae was a quick learner and soon caught on to what they were trying to teach her. Soon after Bant and Reeft successfully taught her how to float, and then swim.

It turned out that teaching Lanae benefitted them as well, shortly after beginning lessons Obi-Wan and Garen were moved up into advanced classes, not ones to be left behind Bant and Reeft began working a little harder until they too were moved up. And it had only just begun.


	5. Oh My Little One

**AN: This chapter is a little weird. And like everything else rather far-fetched. But it does tie in to something brought up in Ch. 2. Some feedback would be muchly appreciated.**

"So will you?" She begged

"But you've caught up with the other six-year-olds, why do you want us to teach you more advanced moves, then you'll be bored when they start teaching them to you." Obi-Wan argued.

"Because I'm already bored!"

"It will only get worse!" Garen protested.

"Unless you keep teaching me." She was pouting now.

"We're 11, I don't think that qualifies us to be teachers." Bant said diplomatically.

"Please!"

"Maybe a few moves." Reeft was the first to acquiesce, he was almost always the first to acquiesce to Lanae. In the past year she had somehow managed to convince them to teach her most of the curriculum that the five-year-olds had to cover, it wasn't particularly difficult, she was a quick learner, and the lessons were rather straightforward. But she wanted to know more, and seemed to think that Obi-Wan, Garen, Reeft, and Bant were the perfect source to learn everything from.

"Thank you, Thank you!" Lanae was literally glowing, she had changed a lot in the past year, the haunted look in her eyes was rarely present, she was more open with those around her, she was energetic, and more carefree. And she had made her way into all of their hearts, making them all feel more mature than their 11 years, but not inhibited by this maturity.

"Alright so you've already learned Kata 1 and 2, and your teachers will probably keep your group working on it for a while longer, so I suppose we can teach you kata 3." This was Garen, as normal he had capitulated right after Reeft.

Obi-Wan and Bant looked at each other, then shrugged, they were done with their classes and homework, so why not. Grinning they began practicing. It was their normal procedure, two of them would work with Lanae while the other two practiced, then they would switch. That way they all got some practice in and there was always someone working with Lanae.

He could hear Garen and Reeft instructing Lanae on the proper positioning for her feet, when suddenly he felt a sudden rift of pain through the force. Turning he saw Garen and Reeft converging towards a fallen Lanae, who was on the floor gasping in pain.

"Lanae, Lanae. What's wrong? Where does it hurt?" Bant was right behind him headed towards Lanae. But Lanae merely shook her head. She pulled a necklace out of her robes, she stared at it in pain and confusion.

"It wasn't supposed to happen, the throne… the throne. It doesn't make sense." She was rambling in confusion, eyes glazing over. "Yoda, I need Yoda."

With that Garen and Reeft were up and running, searching for Master Yoda or a healer. They had barely made it out the door when they ran into Master Windu and Master Yoda who had been hurrying into the room. They didn't say a thing, Obi-Wan watched as Master Windu merely scooped Lanae up into his arms and then hurry out the room, headed he assumed to the Med Center. Obi-Wan followed, frightened and confused. What was going ON?

They got to the Med Center to see a healer he didn't know, and he knew a lot of them. "When was her birthday?" Her birthday? Why did that matter when she was writhing in pain.

"Last week." Master Windu answered., then paused "Why didn't this happen last week?"

The lady shrugged, "Hers is a rather unprecedented case." She sighed, "The youngest ceremony was 12, and she didn't have to give the life-stone until she was thirteen, but she was taking the throne… so." She trailed off, checking Lanae's vitals "I won't lie, it's dangerous for her, her past is volatile, she's very young, her body and mind may not be able to handle it."

Master Yoda nodded "Many obstacles to overcome will she have. But survive it she will." The healer just glanced at him, muttering something under her breath.

Master Windu looked over at Obi-Wan and his friends "Perhaps the four of you should go." It was said kindly but firmly. With one last glance at Lanae the four headed towards the door.

"Wait," the healer stopped them, then she turned to Master Windu "has she decided on her first trustee?" Master Windu glanced at Master Yoda, then shook his head.

"If she has she didn't tell any of us."

"Keep them here then, as her friends she may choose one of them," she glanced at them with a disapproving look, "we might as well keep them close until she makes her decision." Master Windu nodded to her, and then gestured for the four of them to take a seat. And then they waited, and watched as Lanae continued to whimper and writhe in the bed.

She didn't think she was physically in pain. But then again she wasn't sure, she wasn't really sure of anything. This wasn't supposed to happen! She had given up the throne! Had she not? Trustees were part of the check-and-balance system for the queens, to keep them in line. But she was never going to be queen, there was NO point!

She frowned, trying to remember what her mother had taught her about the life-stones all those years ago. It was difficult, she had been two at the time, although she knew she would never forget it, the life-stones made sure of that. She writhed again and again, her body breaking her concentration. Why was she writhing? She wasn't in any pain, was she?

Again she tried to concentrate, picturing the landscape of Macinar as she sat next to her mother, learning about life-stones and duty. The life-stones were a strange phenomenon in the force, she knew that. They passed from generation to generation, putting the lives of the Macinar queens into the hands of others. Four others. She mentally sighed, she didn't particularly like that idea, who did she trust enough to put her life in their hands. She only had to choose one right now. But who? She pushed that aside. She needed to remember.

Again she pictured Macinar sprawled out in front of her, her mother next to her. She could see her mother now. Dark red her twisted into a crown on her head, a white dress, brown eyes, soft smile. And this time as she writhed she did feel pain. _Remember_. Her mother put her hand on her shoulder, or was that someone else, she ignored it. Trying to remember.

Her mother's voice… "The first time you give away a life-stone is the most painful, the first pain is the pain of remembering duty. And until you remember duty you cannot move on to the next step." She remembered now, looking at her mother strangely, naively asking how one could forget duty when she was born and raised in the castle being taught duty. Her mother had laughed "Perhaps, but the third queen of Macinar lay in pain for three days before she decided her duty was to be a mother."

"So she wasn't a queen? Then why was she the third queen of Macinar?"

Her mother's tinkling laugh "Oh no she was a queen, however she had more children than any queen has had before or after, 22 if I remember correctly." She remembered staring at her mother aghast, 22 children? Another laugh "The force provides a way for each of us to do our duty." Her mother had paused then "I remember my own pain, it lasted a day and a half, and finally I realized my duty was to give our people a senate."

"So what about me? If Macinar becomes a senate then I don't need to be queen!" She remembered feeling excited about that, no queenly duties, another laugh, how she missed that laugh.

"Like all of us before you, you will have your time when you must decide your duty, it may be as simple as raising a family, or you could be like Lady Myalona, the 355th queen, she had a list seven pages long of her duties. But being queen is in your blood, it does not matter what else you are, you are a queen."

"But Macinar won't need me?"

"Whether Macinar needs you or not, you will have a duty, and your daughter will have a duty, and her daughter, others may not call you queen, but me, you, and your daughters will ALWAYS be queen, it's part of who we are."

The memory faded, and the pain increased. Duty, what was her duty? She could hear her mother laugh again, "You know your duty Lanae, you have been doing your duty."

Jedi. Her duty was to become a Jedi. She felt a thrill of affirmation race through her. But the pain didn't stop. She frowned. The lady Myalona, there was more than one duty. She was no longer needed on Macinar, her duty could not lay there… could it? Representative. The word reverberated through her mind. No she mentally shook her head. That wasn't HER decision. "You will know your duty, you may not know how it will come to pass, but the time will come when you will be called upon to do your duty." Lanae mentally sighed… a representative, she did not understand now. Alright… Jedi, representative. Another thrill of affirmation. But still the pain would not cease.

"Mother?" she could almost feel her mother's caress.

"I'm here little one, trust yourself… it will come in time." Lanae wanted to cry out. She could faintly hear herself whimpering, the pain was increasing… she was so close. She could feel that there was one last duty. She racked her mind. What was her duty? She allowed the pain to course through her, she did not know how long she lay there, the pain consuming her as she allowed her mind to wander, searching unknown paths for an answer. And then she realized she already knew. Her final duty, her life long duty. It was her duty… to love. Jedi, Representative, Love. A final thrill of affirmation. The pain ceased and the world went black.

For two days they had traded on and off, for two days Lanae had lay there writhing in pain. The healer had explained that this was a pain Lanae had to deal with herself. Bant had been aghast. There was nothing to be done. She and the boys had asked what was going on, why this was happening to Lanae. Master Windu shook his head, telling them it was Lanae's right to tell them. Bant had the feeling that he himself barely understood.

And then Lanae had fallen silent, she looked at peace, and the healer had sighed in relief. "Step one down, Thank the force." Bant felt sudden apprehension. That was step one? There was more? She could see similar expressions on the face of the boys around her.

"Hello Mrs. Whitlock, what are you doing here on Coruscant?" Bant's head jerked up, Lanae lay there looking at the healer.

The lady looked at her warmly "I knew your time was coming soon, I contacted Master Windu and he arranged for me to be here. You needed someone who knew what was going on to be here for you." There was a short laugh "Not that anyone REALLY understands."

Lanae smiled "How is everyone?" It was said timidly.

"They are thankful, you've given us all another chance." Lanae immediately shook her head.

"My mother gave you that chance." It was said firmly "It was her duty, and her work that freed you."

The healer laughed "Then you were the tool she used, it matters not, we are still thankful for all you did for us. I wouldn't be surprised if the new ruling body doesn't come to you sometime in the near future. Even though we no longer have royalty on Macinar, you will always be our princess and queen."

Bant just stared. Lanae was a Princess? What was going on. The lady interrupted her thoughts "Have you chosen your first trustee?" a pause, "Do you remember the rules of trustee choosing?"

Lanae's eyes closed again "Four males, if one dies a female is allowed to take his place." She looked at the healer again who nodded "I have to trust them with my life" another nod from the healer "I don't remember any other rules." She sounded sheepish.

"Just that they have to accept it. Holding a life in your hands is a grave responsibility, they need to hold it willingly."

"How much time do I have until I need to decide." Lanae sounded frightened.

"An hour to decide. And then the final step will commence." Lanae nodded at the words eyes drifting over the people around her bed. Thoughtful eyes scanning those around her.

Lanae worked to keep her terror under control. She had to trust someone with her life. Mentally she cried out for her mother, she did not want to make this decision on her own.

"But little one, this is a decision that you have to make on your own." The soft words whispered in her mind, carrying with it a sense of peace. "Look around you, you already trust these people. You are afraid of giving them the power to hurt you. But you must overcome this fear. You already know." Her mother's words echoed in her mind.

Lane looked around again, unaware of the time passing slowly by, undisturbed by the heavy silence permeating the room. And she realized her mother was right. She already knew. Master Windu sat directly to her left. She trusted him with her life, but she knew it was not his fate to carry a life-stone. Reeft sat next to him. When the time came she knew she would entrust one stone to him. But his time had not come. Bant sat next to Reeft. Again she trusted Bant with her life. But Bant was female, she would never carry this burden. Next came Garen, and Lanae knew that the time would come when he to would carry her life in his hands. But life Reeft she knew that his time had not yet come. She looked at Obi-Wan. Instinctively she knew that she would give him the final life-stone. And she had to blink back tears. She was going to end up putting her life in the hands of 11 year olds. But age didn't seem to matter, only that she trusted them.

Finally she looked to the person directly on her right. Yoda. He would receive her first life-stone. Her mother's voice echoed in her mind again. "See, you knew. You have always known. They love you, they want to protect you. You have chosen well."

Lanae reached up to her neck touching the stones that held her life. She did not look at the stones, but let each stone slide through her fingers until she was holding the right stone. She held onto it for a moment before the chain connecting it to the necklace came undone, becoming a second necklace.

"I trust you." She looked at all of the people around her bed "I trust each of you." She held the newly detached necklace up to the light, staring at it. Then she turned to her right, "Master Yoda, I trust you with my life, will you carry my life with you?" She held the necklace out to him.

He looked at her, the love of a father in his eyes. "Carry your life with me always I will." He took the necklace in his clawed hand and fastened it around his own neck. Lanae watched as the necklace seemed to disappear from around his neck. Protecting it from the eyes of the world. Yoda was now the only one who could take the necklace off, and only when he had decided that her life was of no worth to him.

Lanae closed her eyes, feeling peace. The final trial was coming. Instinctively she reached out both hands, grabbing one of Reefts and one of Obi-Wans hands with her own small hands. And the darkness took her again.

Obi-Wan started when he felt her hand grab his, but did not pull away. He did not truly understand all that was going on, he remembered the healer's words. "Not that anyone really understands." He looked up, glancing around at the people sitting around the bed, they all appeared to be in silent thought.

Master Windu was the first to speak. "As you might have figured, Lanae was a princess on her home planet. Sometime in the far past the force created the necklace you see around her neck. Weaving within it the life of the queen, the life of each queen." He paused "Each queen must give four pieces of the necklace to someone she trusts. They literally carry her life around their necks. All they need to do is take the necklace off in anger, and… she dies." There was more silence "Just one moment of anger, just one foolish action."

"Why?" Obi-Wan wanted to know. "Why would the force create such a necklace?"

"Understand we do not, all the methods of the force. Know we only that a reason the force has."

Garen looked up at the healer "What is the final step?" His voice was hoarse. As though he had held back tears. Obi-Wan wasn't surprised, he had had to hold back his own tears.

"The Queens of Macinar believe in duty, and because they believe in duty the weight of their failures weighs heavily upon them. And so she will relieve all of her perceived failures of the past four years, beginning with the death of her mother up unto now." The healer sniffed "It will be very painful for her. She blames herself for the deaths of hundreds of children. I have no doubt she will relive each of those memories."

"Was she to blame?" Reeft sounded aghast.

The healer shook her head "Not at all. Not at all." She shook her head "But she doesn't realize that. Stay with her, she will need all the support she can get, even if she does not know that you are there."

And so their vigil continued, silence was again reigning as they all drifted into their own thoughts. Obi-Wan looked again at the small hand holding his own. She was only six. She shouldn't have such weight upon her shoulders.

She knew what was coming, and the fear that enveloped her was nearly suffocating. Again she felt her mother's presence soothing her. Pushing away the guilt and fear that ate at her. "Mother" she cried "I failed, I failed so many people." The guilt ate at her, pulling her towards a pit of despair and hopelessness. Swirling her around until all she could feel was pain. "I failed…" Although she knew it wasn't real she could feel her mother put her arms around her, holding her as the pain and guilt ripped through her. And as the memories came for her she heard her mother's heartfelt whisper.

"Oh my little one."


	6. Fight It On Her Own

She was on the veranda overlooking Macinar, but this time she did not so much as notice the view, instead her eyes were fixed upon her father and mother… and herself. The much younger Lanae was in the corner frightened. Her mother was facing her father pleading with him to understand. Couldn't he see that it was her duty to give the people of Macinar a senatorial ruling body?

But Lanae already knew that he didn't. King Treaty cared nothing of duty, cared nothing for anyone. When her mother had first met him he had been kind and caring, loving and compassionate. And her mother had trusted him. And now it was that trust that was going to kill her. Lanae watched in horror, even though she already knew what was going to happen. The yelled words, the heartfelt pleading, the hand reaching up towards his neck. If it were possible Lanae would have closed her eyes, but it wasn't an option. She watched as her father ripped the life stone from his neck. In what felt like slow motion her mother fell to her knees, her hands on her heart. She was gasping for air, but Lanae knew it was over, her mother had trusted the wrong person.

Her father watched dispassionately as a young Lanae finally threw herself away from the wall running to her mother who was still gasping on the floor, begging her to respond. But this nightmare wasn't over yet. King Treaty, she could not bear to call him father, pulled a blaster, apparently her mother wasn't dying fast enough, and there were three short blasts and her mother fell to the ground. It was then that the king turned and left. He never heard the last words of his wife as she lay dying. But the young Lanae had, and now four years later Lanae heard the words again. "Always" another gasp "Always do your duty." The young Lanae had nodded fervently, not quite understanding but desperate to give her mother this last request. And it had been the last thing her mother had said.

Finally the older Lanae could turn away. She did not need to see to remember the life-jewels appearing around her neck, burdening her with a responsibility that she couldn't bear.

The memory faded, replaced by another. She was watching as her father distributed his collars, he had been intelligent, at a memorial for his wife he had collected the young children and given them a special collar, telling them it was an honor to wear it, in memory of his wife. He had sent them out to their parents then, and the young princess had gone with them, mourning with the people who had loved her mother. She had been in the crowd when the king had come out on a veranda to speak with the crowd. The words blurred in her mind "king… obey… death…" The people had spoken angrily, telling him that he was not their king, he was a regent, like all regents it was his duty to train the princess to become queen, but he had no true power. And then her father pulled out a small device, and with a flip of a switch children had fallen to their knees screaming as they were electrocuted, many of the youngest children fell limp and unconscious to the ground.

There were no more protests; try as they might the citizens of Macinar could find no way to remove the collars. And unless they allowed themselves to be collared, their children would die. And so they became collared, the men were taken from their families, sent to work on anything the king wanted done. Dangerous mines were opened, cruel experiments began. Any failure was met by the death sentence of a child. It was then that a young Lanae began to tell families to flee. She would listen outside doors trying as hard as she could to find the next victim. But there is only so much a young girl could do.

As more memories played through her mind Lanae watched children die, the children she had not been fast enough to save, children she had not known needed saving. And she cried. Because she was right, she HAD failed. She had failed to do her duty to her people. And she cried, because she had given everything she had, and it had not been enough. She was not enough. But her tears did nothing for her. The memories of lives lost continued to come, until finally there were no more.

The six of them sat around the bed, unsure of how to support the girl between them. She did not writhe or whimper as she had before, instead she lay perfectly still, barely breathing, with tears running down her face uncontrollably. They took turns wiping away the tears. Whispering soothing words with no meaning. For what could one say in such a scenario?

And so the vigil continued until the tears stopped streaming down her face. It was then that the healer made her presence known again.

"She's in pain right now, more than likely she won't want to talk about any of it." The healer paused "Under normal circumstances we would want to encourage her to talk about it, but this is something she needs to work out on her own. Let her take it at her own pace."

Master Windu looked at the four youth sitting next to the bed "She's right, just be there for her right now, it's all we can really do."

"If she wakes up of course." The healer added quietly, "She's not quite out of this yet."

"What do you mean if?" Bant sounded incredulous "Surely she's going to wake up?"

"That's the thing, she should already be awake, the longer it takes for her to wake up the less likely it is that she will wake up." The healer's voice trembled, betraying the fear that she was obviously feeling.

Seven pair of eyes returned to the girl lying on the bed, as once again all they could do was wait, and hope. Obi-Wan tightened his hold on the hand in his own. Sure she was young, but she was one of his best friends, he couldn't lose her.

She knew it was time for her to wake up again, but she had no real desire to, she had no real desire to do anything to be honest. After leaving the realm of nightmares, she had found herself drifting through… nothing. The absolute nothingness was strangely calming, as though it was beckoning her to become completely lost in its depths. Which was slightly confusing for her, how could there be depths of nothingness? She released her confusion into the nothingness until there was no confusion, just her and the nothing, there was no pain here either. She was grateful for that.

She didn't know how long she allowed herself to float through nothing. Every now and then she thought about going deeper into nothing, wondering if she could envelope herself so deeply into nothing that she became nothing. The thought didn't frighten her, although something in her knew that it should frighten her. But every time she considered the idea, there was a part of her that reminded her that she couldn't. It was that same part of her that urged her to leave this realm of nothing. But just as she would not delve into the nothingness, neither could she leave it. She was just too tired. If she was nothing, she wouldn't feel tired, or pain, or sorrow. If she was nothing… the thoughts seemed to creep into her mind. If she was nothing. Was it really that simple? Was that all it would take to leave behind all the failures and pain? She could almost feel herself slip further into nothing.

But what about love? What about happiness? If you become nothing you'll never feel happiness again, for nothing does not feel. And with that she stopped slipping into nothing. She wasn't sure she wanted to give up on happiness, but was pain worth happiness, was failure worth the chance of success? Was any of it worth it?

"Oh my little one." The voice seemed to penetrate through the nothing, piercing the young girl in the heart. "Oh my little one." Lanae struggled, trying in vain to hear the voice. The voice that could dispel the nothingness, but still keep the pain at bay. As though in answer to her thoughts the voice continued "Little one, I can not keep the pain away forever, if you leave this place the pain will come, there will always be pain. But little one, even in the depths of pain and sorrow, there will always be a ray of love and happiness." Lanae struggled again, she knew that voice, but the nothingness seemed to have stolen her ability to remember. "Little one, you need to decide, you can slip away into nothingness, you can leave behind the pain and sorrow. Or you can choose to return, leave this place behind, you can continue to do your duty, and it will bring you pain, but it will bring you happiness as well. It is time to choose little one." The voice seemed to fade away. But Lanae now knew who the voice belonged to, her mother was the one who had always called her little one, her mother was the one who had taught her to do her duty, and her mother was the one who had shown her that happiness could always be found.

Lanae wanted to cry out. But the ability was beyond her. Everything was beyond her. The nothingness lashed out at her, reminding her of all her many failures, feeling her with fear and dread, and she felt herself become paralyzed, paralyzed by fear and pain, unwilling to face them again, unwilling to face herself. And she could feel the nothing crow with victory, further pulling her into it's depths, away from the voice of her mother.

The nothingness had won. She could not escape its hold on her, and it was with a lurch of fear that Lanae realized that it not only surrounded her, it was in her. It had been in her for a long time. And she could not dispel it, for how can run remove nothing? Nothing cannot be removed. If she were capable Lanae would have cried out in despair.

As though in answer to her despair, her mother's voice echoed in her mind. "I've always believed in you little one." Lanae could feel part of the empty space in her disappear. How? How could nothing disappear? She could feel her mother laugh gently. Nothing could not disappear, but that space can be filled.

Lanae threw herself into her memories, her mother kissing her forehead, a whispered I love you little one, the tears of gratitude in the eyes of a family, crawling onto Obi-Wan's lap that first night in the temple, Bant teaching her how to swim, learning about the force with her classmates, having Obi-Wan, Bant, Reeft, and Garen teach her, trying to sneakily follow masters Windu and Yoda around only to be caught and given an affectionate tap with Yoda's gimer stick and then invited to cookies and tea. The memories rushed through her mind. The love and happiness filling the space that had been empty. And as the space inside her filled, the nothingness around her lost it's hold upon her. And she found she did have the strength to leave this place of nothing.

She had duties to perform, and she now had the strength she needed to do them. She was loved, she knew that now.

Yoda bowed his head, "Losing her we are." His ears drooped sadly "Losing the fight she is."

"Can we do anything?" Bant whispered.

"It's her fight, she has to fight it on her own." Master Windu answered her, although Obi-Wan had the feeling that he didn't like the idea anymore than the rest of them.

Obi-Wan began to rub Lanae's hand softly he looked up to see Garen doing the same with her other hand. Bant began to hum a soft song, a song that she had sung to Lanae several months ago, Reeft began to softly retell a story of how he and Garen had managed to pull a prank on Obi-Wan, he kept telling her that he would teach her how to pull pranks too, Master Windu and Master Yoda looked at them askance for a moment before nodding, Obi-Wan could feel them begin to radiate feelings of happiness and contentment to the girl lying on the bed.

Obi-Wan didn't know if their actions had any effect on the girl, but it was only a short time later that the hand that he had been holding was suddenly holding his hand. He gasped, and heard Garen do the same from the opposite side of the bed. Immediately Reeft and Bant stopped what they were doing to look at the two of them. But both Obi-Wan and Garen were to busy watching Lanae's face. Her eyelids were twitching, as though they were trying to open.

Lane's eyes opened, but she seemed confused and disoriented, as though she was unsure of where she was. "Ahchoo, Ahchoo, Ahchoo" For a moment Lanae just lay there again before she suddenly sneezed again. And again. And again. He heard a snort of muffled laughter, he turned to see both Garen and Reeft trying hard to hide their laughter. And suddenly Obi-Wan found that he had to try not to laugh too. After sitting there so long waiting for Lanae to wake up, the sneezing was rather comical, especially since Lanae looked so annoyed.

If the sneezes had been surprising Lanae's next action was even more so. She jerked up to a sitting position before scrambling to her knees and hugging ALL of them, she started with Master Yoda and went around her bed hugging the rest of them. Garen started laughing again, Obi-Wan looked around to see what he was laughing about and he started laughing too, Bant and Reeft soon joined him, and even Yoda was chuckling. Lanae was currently hugging Master Windu and the look on Master Windu's face was one of confusion. It was apparent that he had no clue what he was supposed to do.

The healer hurried forward only to have Lanae jump out of bed and hug her. She seemed strangely happy for just having been lying on a bed unconscious for who knows how long.

Master Yoda gestured for the four of them to circle him. "Understand we do not what happened is. Explained to us all later things will be."

Obi-Wan exchanged looks with his friends. They all grinned back at him. Reeft turned back to Lanae "So do you want to learn Kata three or not?"


	7. You're My Best Friend

Time flies. Lanae thought, it felt like only yesterday that she had been lying on a hospital bed unconscious. That was more than a year ago now. Things had changed. But at the same time things hadn't.

Her hand reached up to her neck unconsciously, clutching the two remaining jewels tightly. Her mind drifted back to several months ago.

Where was Bant? She said that the two of them could go swimming together this afternoon. She and Bant had become close friends despite their difference in age. The same went for Garen, Reeft and Obi-Wan. She knew that it had begun because they felt sorry for the frightened five-year-old. But it had continued beyond their pity and in the end they were just friends. Why she wasn't sure, but that didn't really matter to her.

She felt someone coming up behind her. She turned around to see Bruck Chun. He was the same age as Obi-Wan, but unlike Obi-Wan and the others he wasn't at all nice. She could tell he was concentrating hard on something, but she wasn't sure what.

Suddenly she felt a rock hit her on her shin, she glanced down in surprise and for a moment confusion. She looked up to see Bruck smirking. Although he was still concentrating hard on something, had he thrown the rock at her? She hadn't seen him pick up a rock. Unless… Of course, he was using the force, which would explain the look of concentration. Another rock came flying at her. She dodged it easily.

"Bruck, stop it! I'm not a target dummy."

Bruck ignored her, the jerk, and a few more rocks came pelting towards her. Again she avoided them easily. She backed up closer to the water. "Seriously Bruck, cut it out!"

"How are you going to make me? Huh?" Came the typical bully response.

Lanae clenched her teeth, as her foot twisted on a rock, she glanced down for a moment and was rewarded by a rock hitting her in the side of the head, she stumbled and fell into the water behind her. "Leave me ALONE!" There was blood in her eyes and there were spots in her vision. She heard Bruck laugh. But was too occupied by water filling her throat. She couldn't feel the ground beneath her and she began to panic. She heard someone jump into the water, and flinched away from what she guessed to be Bruck come to torment her farther.

"Lanae, calm down, I'm just trying to help." It was Garen's voice. She felt him grab her, and pull her along after him. Her vision was a little fuzzy and she was struggling to focus. "Come on Lanae focus." She could see Garen's outline and kept blinking trying to bring him into focus. She felt him tie something around her head, trying to staunch the flow of blood. "Come on Lanae, let's get you to the med center."

Lanae stumbled to her feet, her head hurt, but she was now more aware of a soft heat emanating from one of the life-jewels around her neck. "Garen, wait." He paused, turning towards her. Lanae reached up and pulled one of the jewels from her neck. She handed it to him. "I trust you with my life." He took it hesitantly.

Lanae heard him whisper "I'll carry it with honor." And then Lanae's world went black.

That had been the first time Bruck had tried to hurt her. Why Bruck wanted to hurt her was a mystery to her, it wasn't the Jedi way, nor was she a threat to him, being older than her she was no competition. But bullies rarely make sense and she had come to accept that long ago.

Bant had blamed herself for Lanae getting hurt, saying that she should have let Lanae know earlier that she had to finish a project for astrophysics. Lanae told her that Bant had saved her by sending Garen down to the Room of a Thousand Fountains. If anyone was to blame it was her and Bruck. Bruck for being an idiot, her for losing her focus. But it was over, and it didn't matter anymore. Although Lanae had noticed that the tension between her four friends and Bruck had escalated. She worried about that. She could feel that something was going to happen because of it. She just didn't know what.

Lanae sighed. Sure a rock to the head had hurt. But Lanae thought Bruck's second attack had been more painful, and she blamed herself for being a fool and allowing him to hurt her.

She had just finished classes with her age mates and was going to the cafeteria to eat lunch when Bruck made his attack. Although Lanae hadn't recognized it as such at the time.

"I came to apologize for throwing rocks at you, I don't know what was wrong with me. It's not the way of the Jedi." Lanae whirled around, Bruck was behind her leaning against a wall. She wanted to tell him that it wasn't the way of ANY civilized being, but she realized that would have been an immature response. But he didn't really seem remorseful. She frowned.

"Well… thank you I suppose for… apologizing." She still didn't think he was sorry. But it would be hypocritical for her to not forgive him, after all forgiving was the way of the Jedi.

"Anyway, I wanted to warn you before you got hurt." Bruck continued on, his face a mask. Lanae hesitated.

"Get hurt? How am I going to get hurt?"

Bruck started walking, forcing Lanae to follow him if she wanted any answers. Answers she discovered she did want. Bruck sighed "Look, I don't know how to say this, it's a little awkward for me, and I realize you have no reason to trust me, after throwing rocks at you and all." He trailed off, waiting for Lanae to say something. Lanae got the distinct feeling that he was baiting her.

"Well if you just tell me what it is you are trying to warn me about then I can decide for myself if I should trust you." Bruck grinned at her, and Lanae felt suddenly uncomfortable.

"You know you're a little kid right? Right" He didn't wait for her to answer "So I suppose you realize that older kids don't really want to hang out with… a youngling like you." Lanae was about to interrupt, inform him, that she did have friends that were older, and they did like her. But he just kept going. "I know you want to think that Obi-Wan, Garen, Reeft and Bant like you, that they are all your friends. But… and this is the awkward part. I've heard them talking about how much they wish you would leave them alone. They're just to nice to tell you themselves, but at some point they will. I just don't want to see them hurting younglings like that, which is why I am warning you now. Don't take it to heart, you can find friends your own age." And with that he strolled off leaving Lanae alone.

She had brushed it off. Bruck was a bully and she shouldn't believe a word he said. But part of her wondered, wasn't there a chance that he was right? That her friends weren't really her friends at all? She suddenly felt cold.

She had hurried off to lunch then, pushing the experience to the back of her mind. She wouldn't let Bruck of all people get to her. Things had gone normally after that, her friends had all been just as nice to her as always, but Lanae had found herself analyzing everything they said to her, trying to see if they really wanted her around. She hadn't seen anything to point to Bruck being right. But she couldn't completely erase the voice in the back of her head that sounded awfully similar to Bruck's, telling her that she wasn't wanted wasn't liked.

She headed to the training rooms, Reeft had told her that they would teach her Kata 17 today. She was several katas ahead of her other class mates, and she was eager to learn more. She was outside the training room when something inside her made her hesitate outside the room, the door was open, but she hadn't gotten close enough for them to have seen her approaching.

"Is Lanae coming down tonight?" That was Bant talking. Lanae hesitated again, she was later then normal, true. But she couldn't convince herself to go in the room yet.

"Yep." That was Reeft.

"Well, until she gets here we get to relax, who's going to deal with her training first?" That was Obi-Wan, she felt a pang of pain. If Bruck was right… that sounded as though they considered her a burden.

"The way I figure it, Garen deserves a turn teaching her." Again Lanae's mind filled with negative connotations. Had Garen done something stupid that deserved being burdened by her? She could hear laughs, and Lanae couldn't take it anymore. She turned and ran back to her rooms.

These people were her friends… they had been her friends. They didn't want her around, well she would respect them enough to leave them alone. But inside she felt as though something was breaking. She realized that she was being irrational, it's not like this was a big deal, she had experienced much larger forms of betrayal. But the part of her that was still a seven-year-old girl wanted to cry. And so she did.

The next day she skipped breakfast, she normally sat with… them. And with everything that had happened she didn't think she could bear to face them. After a restless night sleep she had come up with a course of action. She had age mates that were friends, she would just try to spend more time with them. It saddened her that she would no longer have the opportunity to learn from… them, or talk with… them, their conversations had always been much more intriguing then the conversations from her fellow age-mates.

She hurried to her classes, devoting all of her energy into it. Blocking out the insecurities that had been manifesting themselves twice as much as normal. Maybe her age-mates didn't like her either, maybe her teachers actually thought she was stupid. What if they were all lying to her? And so she put even more energy into her studies.

By so doing Lanae managed to avoid seeing her older friends for several days. Her streak ended when she ran into Obi-Wan in the hallways before lunch one day. "Are you going to join us for lunch today? We haven't seen you around in a while?"

"Uh… no, I was going to finish… something up for one of my classes." Obi-Wan nodded as though that was sensible. "Are you going to join us for saber practice tonight, we never did get around to teaching you Kata 17. Lanae flinched, that had been the night she had realized they didn't want her around.

"Look, you can… just stop it, I'm leaving you alone, you don't have to go and pretend on me! Feel free to just leave me ALONE, okay!" Then she had burst into tears and run away. Leaving a confused Obi-Wan in the hallways.

She had gone several more days without seeing any of her friends, she had avoided the cafeteria like the plague, begging Clara, one of her age-mates to bring her food, and had used her memory of their classes to avoid the hallways she would likely see them in.

She had been decent friends with her age-mates before, but she became better friends with them now. But she found that she could care less about the shows they would watch on the holo-net in their spare time. She preferred learning things, and messing around. Her age-mates did far less messing around then Obi-Wan, Garen, Reeft, and Bant.

Currently she was in her room working ahead in her diplomacy class (she found that when she exerted so much energy into her work she ended up finishing things pretty quickly, and since she wasn't willing to stop working she was forced to work ahead.) She felt someone enter the room behind her, she hoped it wasn't Clara coming to convince her to watch their holo-flick with them. The current flick was about a tyrannical king trying to take over a planet. And there was no way she was going to watch that flick, no chance at all.

"Why the sudden seclusion." Lanae jerked up and whirled around. Reeft was sitting on the beds of one of her age-mates watching her.

Lanae felt suddenly uncomfortable, she hadn't expected this. "I didn't want to be a burden anymore." She said it in a small voice, unexplainably frightened by the idea that he might confirm all of her fears once and for all.

"We don't think you're a burden," he stood up and came and sat by her "You're our friend, we enjoy teaching you, and helping you, and showing you how to pull all the best pranks."

Lanae looked at him wide-eyed, "It doesn't bother you that I'm so… young?"

Reeft nodded "Sure sometimes it's difficult when we want to spar, you aren't good enough to spar with us, but you've always been willing to sit and cheer us on." He shrugged "Plus you're more mature than we were at seven. Our friendship may have started as a couple of ten-year-olds trying to be nice to a lost and lonely five-year-old, but it continued because we like you. You're funny, and silly, and interesting, and we've gotten over the fact that you're five years younger than us and several years more mature than us."

Lanae lunged forward and hugged him then started crying into his shoulder. She felt so much BETTER, and all of a sudden she didn't care as much about finishing her current diplomacy project.

Reeft patted her back awkwardly (he was after all still a twelve-year-old guy, he didn't quite know what he was supposed to do in this given situation.) "The others are down in the training room wondering if you are willing to join us. Obi-Wan told us about the hallway incident, and we were worried about you. He poked her, he thinks he did something wrong, so I suggest we go down and teach you some katas so he stops thinking he's sith incarnate." Lanae giggled and ran to grab her training saber. Reeft stopped her "What made you think that we didn't like you anyways?"

Lanae shifted guiltily, now that she thought about it again it was all really stupid and silly of her. "Bruck said some things and I let them get to me, and then it all went out of control from there." Reeft nodded, but Lanae had a feeling that Bruck was going to take the brunt of a few practical jokes in the nearby future.

They were about to leave her room when Lanae felt her necklace warm again. She stopped Reeft and grabbed one of the life-jewels off of her necklace. She hesitated then "I trust you with my life." And she handed him the necklace.

Reeft looked down at the necklace in his hand "And I will carry it with pride."

Lanae grinned at him and they both headed out the door to the training room. Lanae couldn't help but think that this was much more fun than watching some holo-flick about tyrannical kings.

Lanae fingered the last two jewels again. She could feel that the time was coming when she would have to give the last jewel to Obi-Wan, but she wasn't sure when she was supposed to. Garen and Reeft had proved to her that she could trust them with her life. But Obi-Wan didn't have to do so, he had proved that when he had taken a five-year-old to a holo-film marathon after he had just met her. He had taken her in when she most needed it. But despite the fact that he had earned her jewel, she knew it wasn't time yet.

She brushed it off, she would worry about that later, currently she was headed to the training room. There was a saber competition today, Obi-Wan would be dueling Bruck. She knew that Obi-Wan was really worried, he was almost thirteen and he had yet to be picked as a padawan. He only had a few more weeks. She also knew that he wanted Master Qui-Gon Jinn to pick him, although he hadn't said as much.

Qui-Gon, he had been one of the Jedi to save her from Macinar, whenever he was in the temple he came to see how she was doing as a Jedi, and he seemed to think she was making remarkable progress, he had so much as told her so. But Lanae thought he had felt cold, as though he was unwilling to care too much about anything. It worried her for Obi-Wan, it would be hard to impress Qui-Gon, although she thought Obi-Wan could do it, she thought Obi-Wan and the others could do pretty much anything! After all they taught her pretty much everything!

She hurried into the audience section of the room, plenty of people had come out to see the competition, Master Qui-Gon nodded at her from across the room, but again Lanae had the feeling that he was there because he had to be, not because he cared to be there.

She watched Obi-Wan's duel with Bruck with awe, she was still amazed by how talented Obi-Wan was. He was by far the best swordsmen of her four friends, and was better than Bruck, although Bruck would never admit it. She watched as Obi-Wan defeated Bruck in a moment of aggressive swordsmanship. She was so excited, but her eyes were drawn to Qui-Gon as he shook his head and turned away. Lanae's heart dropped, and she could feel the disappointment come from Obi-Wan in waves. Although he tried to hide it.

After the rest of the competitions Lane joined her four friends to go swimming, but all of them could tell that Obi-Wan's heart wasn't in it. When Lanae finally left them to go finish some homework she couldn't help but give Obi-Wan a tight hug. She had a feeling that something was going to change. And she wasn't sure it was for the better.

She woke up the next morning with her necklace burning. She needed to find Obi-Wan now. Although she wasn't sure why. She ran to the room that Obi-Wan and Garen shared to find Bant crying with Garen and Reeft attempting to console her.

"What's happened, where's Obi-Wan?"

Garen looked up at her with sad eyes, "Bruck and Obi-Wan got into a fight last night, Bruck told the healers that Obi-Wan attacked him because he was upset that he didn't get picked as a padawan. The council is sending him to Bandomeer… to be a farmer. He's leaving soon. He wasn't going to tell any of us goodbye, but we walked in on him packing."

Lanae stared at him in horror, trying to convince herself that this COULDN'T be true. But she knew it was.

She turned and ran, her feet taking her to the landing docks while her brain tried to process that her friend was leaving… and he wasn't coming back.

She arrived at the landing dock to see Qui-Gon talking to Master Yoda, she ran to them "Where's Obi-Wan?"

"Find him on the ship you will." Master Yoda nodded to her, giving her permission to say goodbye. She saw Qui-Gon give Yoda an exasperated look, as though he thought they were both being foolish.

Lanae ignored him and ran onto the ship searching for Obi-Wan. She found him sitting in a seat looking tired and dejected. She hesitated, she had known that she needed to find him, but she wasn't sure what she was supposed to say. So she didn't say anything. Following her instincts she knelt in front of him before taking off the last jewel of her necklace. She held it in front of him, waiting for him to look up at her. When he finally did he shook his head softly. "You don't need to give me that out of pity you know."

Lanae smiled at him, "I couldn't give to you out of pity even if I wanted to. It doesn't work that way." She paused, "Obi-Wan, I trust you with my life." And then she waited.

Obi-Wan hesitated, as though he was unsure of what he was supposed to say.

Qui-Gon quickly walked onto the ship eager to take off, although frustrated that somehow the boy had ended up on the same ship going to the same planet. If Yoda thought the coincidence would do any good he was mistaken. He didn't need another padawan. He stopped in his tracks by the sight before him.

The princess from Macinar was kneeling on the ground in front of the boy. He heard her whisper softly "Obi-Wan, I trust you with my life." He saw the boy look at the necklace hesitantly, as though he wasn't sure what he was supposed to say.

Then just as quietly he heard "I will carry it with love." Qui-Gon watched as the boy put the necklace around his neck. As soon as it was around his neck Lanae was hugging him.

"I don't care WHAT happens Obi-Wan, you are always going to be my best friend. And even if you are a farmer, it doesn't matter, you will always be a Jedi." Qui-Gon heard the words clearly, and was suddenly frustrated. The force would make sure that Obi-Wan became what he was supposed to become. It wasn't for this girl to tell him that he was a Jedi. He wasn't a Jedi, he was an aggressive and unreliable initiate that could become a fine farmer.

He heard the girl whisper one last time "You're my best friend." And then she stood up and with one final half smile she passed Qui-Gon and left.

Qui-Gon ignored the sudden lump in his throat "It's time to go, this ship is merely taking us to our real transport." And with that he strode away from the boy ignoring the pain hidden in the blue eyes that followed him.

**AN: I am going to use many of the scenarios presented in Jedi Apprentice, I am also going to ignore many of the Jedi Apprentice Books. The timeline will be very different than that of JA just because I need it to be so for certain things to happen. I'll make sure to make mention of either Obi-Wan's or Lanae's ages so you'll know how much time has elapsed. Obi-Wan is by far one of my favorite characters, however unless it corresponds to Lanae in some way we won't see as much of him as I would like to show. That is because I am trying to share Lanae's story and everything that's going on with her back at the temple rather than what's going on with Obi-Wan, of course there will BE Obi-Wan never fear! However the next few years are going to fly by quickly, and the older they get the more you will see of the two of them interacting. This will be a romance, but obviously they need to be several years older before that can happen. So the next few chapters will mostly be watching as Lanae gets older and deals with several things that no other Jedi has to deal with.**


	8. Her New Future

It was weird, Obi-Wan was gone, Garen and Reeft both had their own masters, neither of them had gone on any missions yet, but she could tell that they wanted to. She also knew that they felt bad about being so happy when Obi-Wan was stuck on Bandomeer. She didn't blame them, she felt as though something was missing in their group. But there wasn't anything they could do about that now.

For now all they could do was continue their learning until they day came when they could become Jedi. And how she loved to learn. Especially from Yoda, she loved his messed up way of talking, she loved learning to use a lightsaber, she loved learning to use the force. Although… she was struggling with the force right now. She KNEW it was around her, she had felt it and used it before. But she was struggling with it now. She heard Yoda coming up behind her with his little Gimer stick. Which only served to remind her that she was struggling with the force, she should have felt his presence before she heard it.

"Struggling you are?"

"Yes Master Yoda." She hated admitting she was weak.

Time you should take the force to watch, hmm?" Lanae frowned, not sure she understood. Master Yoda smiled at her before continuing to hobble along.

Lanae sat there and thought, what did the little troll mean she should take time to watch the force. Suddenly she smiled, she didn't know if her idea would work, but even if it didn't it would be fun, and she would probably annoy a few people along the way.

Mace was frustrated, Making initiates feel uncomfortable was what he did, initiates weren't supposed to make HIM uncomfortable. But he couldn't deny that this particular initiate was succeeding where none other had. She had been following him around for the past 2 hours, never saying anything, just watching him intently. He had left his quarters this morning to find her sitting outside waiting for him. When he had asked her what she was doing she had informed sweetly that she was _learning_. What was he supposed to say to that?

As though in answers to his silent prayers Lanae suddenly turned around and hurried off. Thank the force, he didn't appreciate having a silent stalker.

His appreciation was short lived she had only been gone an hour when she returned to her silent vigil, he wasn't even sure how she knew where to find him. Again, it was slightly unnerving. She continued this routine for the rest of the day. He almost sighed in relief when night came and she left.

But she was back the next morning, again following him around, saying nothing, and just watching him. He was grateful for the council meeting (something he never thought he would ever say) because it meant a break from the constant surveillance. Of course he was less grateful for the constant jokes made during the meeting inferring that he had picked up a stray of some sort. It was only his Jedi training that convinced him that patience would reap it's own award. Although Mace couldn't help but notice the strange grin on Yoda's face the entire time. What was that troll up to?

He left the council meeting to find Lanae waiting for him once again. What did that girl WANT?

"So have you learned anything yet?" he asked tightly.

"Yes Master Windu sir I've been learning so much!"

"Yes, and what particularly did you learn?"

"…Lots of things."

"Such as?" Perhaps if she had learned something she would stop following him everywhere. He paused, he was letting an initiate get to him! Since when had that happened. He supposed it was likely because she was so silent, initiates her age were often loud and rambunctious. That and they avoided him with great skill.

"Oh, just everything! I really need to thank Master Yoda." Ha, so he had been right, Master Yoda was somehow behind this!

"Master Yoda told you to follow me around?"

"No… that would be silly." Lanae looked at him as though he were crazy. "Why would Master Yoda tell me to follow you around?"

"Well, then why are you following me around."

Lanae sighed in apparent exasperation "I'm LEARNING."

"Well how much longer will you be learning?"

There was no answer. Instead Lanae was scrunching up her face in apparent thought. "Is that a trick question?"

Mace just kept walking.

The routine continued for the remainder of the week. By the end of the week he had gotten so used to her presence that it was no longer distracting or unnerving, in fact it was almost comfortable.

And then she was no longer there. He didn't see her until he went for their council meeting. She was waiting outside the door like she had done when she followed him, and Mace almost laughed, it looked like someone else on the council had picked up the stray.

Ki-Adi decided he would never again laugh at the predicaments that Mace constantly found himself in. The council had found it funny that Initiate Lanae had decided to follow Mace everywhere he went, they had found it equally funny that it had unnerved Mace. Now that it was happening to him. He wasn't sure he found it quite as funny.

Lanae just followed him without saying anything. He had no idea what she wanted, she just followed and watched. Ki-Adi never thought he would be glad to go to a council meeting, but within a day of being followed by Lanae he was suddenly glad that they had a meeting today.

He sat in the council chambers relieved when Mace walked in with a distinct smirk on his face. It seemed that he had finally found the funny side of his earlier predicament. Ki-Adi was not amused.

Yaddle supposed she should have realized that it was unnerving to have a second shadow. It had unnerved her fellow Council Members, and it was succeeding in unnerving her. Mace had been followed around for a full week and Ki-Adi Mundi had been followed around for several days. Now it appeared it was her turn. Who knew a second shadow could be so unnerving?

Yoda smiled at the girl following him. She had followed each of the council members around for several days at a time. It had been amusing to see each of them become unnerved by the girl's silent persistence. Particularly as none of them had ever discovered just what it was that she was trying to learn. All she would tell them was that she was learning.

(Learn much, you did? Hmm?) Learn much did you? "Hmm?"

"Oh yes Master Yoda, I did!" She looked as though she was going to jump with excitement. "Each of the Masters reaches out to the force in different ways, but at the same time each do it the same way. I tried each of their methods, and I think I found one that works for me!"

(This method from who, you found? Hmm?) "From who did you find this method hmm?" Ah the minds of the young.

"From you and Master Windu sir."

"Good, good."

"Are you done following Council Members around now?" Bant and Lanae were swimming in the pool. "You've only been doing it for about a month and a half now."

"Yep, it was fun. I think I unnerved a few of them though."

"Did you really?"

"Yeah! It was awesome! I was learning while pretty much pranking the top Jedi of our order!"

"You've spent way to much time with Garen, Reeft and… Obi-Wan."

There was a moment of silence. "I miss him too."

She was nine! She didn't know why that scared her so. Nothing particularly important happened when you were nine. But she felt as though something was going to happen. And she was frightened. She knelt down for meditation. The other girls in her age-group thought it was weird that she meditated so much. She knew it was unusual for initiates to meditate willingly. The others certainly didn't. But she loved the peace that came, the feeling of belonging to the force, being one with it. …and sometimes she could feel her mothers love.

She meditated searching for the source of her apprehension. But she could not find the source. She breathed in, she would deal with it when it came. But for now she would go join the saber duels. She grinned to herself, thanks to Bant, Garen, Reeft and Obi-Wan her saber skills were advanced for her age. These duels would help the Jedi teachers decide which class they should put her in.

She wasn't big into fighting, she was already on course to be a diplomatic Jedi. She felt a tinge of sorrow, Obi-Wan had been on course to be a negotiator as well, Garen preferred piloting, Reeft preferred saber fighting, and Bant preferred healing. She pushed it from her mind, no need to think of what she could not change.

It was time for her to get ready for the competition.

"They want her back." Mace was incredulous, not that they wanted her back; that was understandable, but that the council was even considering it. "She has suffered enough there, she is training to be a Jedi, and she will be a good one."

"With you, agree I do, her decision it must be." Yoda's ears drooped.

"Do you think she will leave the Jedi? You can see that the girl loves it here, she throws herself into everything with a passion, I find it difficult to imagine her leaving when she has such a desire to learn."

"Stifle her desire she would if told she must." Mace was frightened to see the look of sorrow in Yoda's eyes. Surely he did not think this was best.

Ki-Adi joined in "But we would not tell her that she must, I agree with Mace, the girls has the potential to be a great Jedi. I certainly wouldn't want to tell her that she has to leave the order."

Yaddle sighed, "None of us would tell her that, but the people will, they are convinced that it is her duty to return, to be a part of their society, to help them with their government."

Mace sighed, that was the problem, the girl was duty driven, for reasons he couldn't quite explain she would do what she thought was her duty, no matter the personal cost. "But she is nine, why would they ask her to come back now, she is not old enough."

Ki-Adi laughed "Ah, but she saved them when she was five. I wouldn't be surprised if they made her their galactic senator by the time she is sixteen. Several years younger than the youngest of the senators."

Mace looked to Yoda "Has she been told?"

"Tell her after her competition I will."

Yaddle sighed, "I admit I will be sad to see her go." She saw the pained look in many of her fellow council members eyes, "We all know she will, she will always do her duty."

"She will no doubt struggle, she will probably feel torn between two duties that she cannot bring together." Kit Fisto sighed, "She would have been a great Jedi."

"Tell her of this I will, meditate on it we all must."

Lanae was excited, she had done well, and was fairly certain that she would be advanced to a higher saber class. She frowned, she had been beaten by Siri, who was three years her senior, although Lanae was reassured to hear that Siri had beaten people two years her senior. Lanae wondered briefly if she was being prideful. She shivered, she would need to meditate to remove such feelings, she had done well and that was all that mattered.

She felt Yoda's presence nearing her spot in the Room of a Thousand Fountains, she jumped to her feet to bow to the emerging figure.

"In the competition well fought you did, pleased with your progress we are."

"I've had help with my practice" Lanae grinned at the wizened Jedi master next to her. She waited until he sat before sitting herself below him, a piece of etiquette engrained in her from her time before the Jedi temple. As though noticing this Yoda's ears drooped.

"A summons you have received." He paused and Lanae felt intrigued, a summons? "To the council you should come, news for you we have." The apprehension that Lanae had felt that morning returned stronger than ever.

Lanae stood in the center of the council room staring straight ahead towards where Master Yoda and Master Windu were sitting. She was surrounded by the other members of the council, and she was puzzled by the feelings of resignation that seemed to be layering the room.

"We have received communication from your planet Macinar" Master Windu hesitated "They have expressed concern that the training of a Jedi is not right for you."

Lanae hesitated "I am an orphan, I have given away my right to the throne, in the past four years they have created a ruling body that has no need for princesses, no one in Macinar has a reason to care what becomes of me." She paused wondering if she sounded too impertinent, to be on the safe side she added "Perhaps you could enlighten me."

Master Mundi looked at her "They feel that as princess," Lanae flinched at the word princess before interrupting.

"I gave that up four years ago. I am no longer a princess."

Master Mundi sighed, "We realize that, but the people of Macinar feel that, as hereditary ruler, they want you to be a part of the governing body. They feel it is your duty as their princess."

They all saw the flash of pain in her eyes at the word duty. "I'm nine" she whispered "Surely they don't expect me to be a part of their government, it's… not sensible."

"They feel that after all you have done for them that you are more than capable. They think you would be the best choice to represent Macinar."

"I understand." Her head dropped

"We are not saying that you need to acquiesce to this request, in the end it is your choice." Master Windu said kindly.

"I understand." It was a whisper "Is that all masters?"

They nodded, and with a bow she turned and left.

Lanae knelt in meditation, she felt so lost. She remembered four years ago. The Queens trial. She had a set of duties that the force had given her, and she would not fail to do her duty. To be a Jedi that was her duty. But it did not feel the peace that normally came with that reassurance, for it was also her duty to be the representative of her people.

Suddenly Obi-Wan's face appeared in her mind, and her own words echoed back at her, _"it does not matter what happens, you will always be a Jedi"_ and then she knew. She had to push her own desires aside. A Jedi always did their duty, and she had a duty.

She pulled herself out of her meditations. She needed to find Yoda, she would return to Macinar to do her duty.

"When is the soonest I can leave?" Mace looked at the girl in surprise, he had thought she would have postponed her departure as long as possible. As though sensing his surprise she added "I don't like prolonged goodbyes."

Mace nodded in understanding, "there will be a transport ready tomorrow morning." Lanae smiled sadly.

"Don't tell anyone" she whispered "Not until after I am gone."

"Your friends will want to say goodbye."

"They'll understand." She smiled sadly, "I just don't think I'm strong enough to do that too." Mace nodded in understanding.

"We'll respect your wishes." She nodded in thanks.

"I never realized it would hurt so much to do your duty. I watched my mom give her life and I always thought I could do that when the time came, but I never realized giving up your dreams could be just as hard." And then she threw her arms around his waist and started crying.

Mace bent down so he was holding her in a comforting hug. "You will be a great Macinar representative, you have an important role to play in this galaxy and I believe that you are more than capable of fulfilling the role the force has given you."

Lanae withdrew, and nodded, looking a little ashamed of her outburst. They both turned at the sound of a Gimer stick heading their way. Lanae bowed as Master Yoda came towards them.

"Prepared are you for your departure? Leave early you must." Lanae nodded. Yoda gave her an apprising look. "Remember young one, happiness can always be found. Feel the force, do not doubt." She nodded again before hugging Yoda and running off.

The transport was scheduled to depart in about thirty minutes, there had been very little to pack. She slipped into Bant's room and slipped a friendship knot onto the desk beside her bed. Minutes later she had left two identical knots in Garen's and Reeft's rooms. She slid out into the hallway headed toward the landing pad, she straightened her shoulders as she walked. Ready to face her new future.


	9. Feeling Claustrophobic

Yoda accompanied the young girl down to the ship that would take her to Macinar. He could sense a tinge of despair and anxiety radiating from her, although she was doing a admirable job hiding it.

"A question I have for you Young Treaty."

She turned her head towards him "Yes Master Yoda?"

He smiled gently "Give me the honor would you, my padawan to be?" Lanae gave him a confused look.

"Master Yoda, I'm leaving for Macinar to be one of their political representatives. I've made that decision, I cannot be your apprentice." He could hear the pain in her voice as she once again turned down her dream.

"Yes yes, difficult your training will be."

"Master Yoda, I…"

He interrupted her, "Deny the force would you?" He hit the ground with his Gimer stick "Hmm? Your duty it is a Jedi to become, let difficulties stop you will you?"

Lanae's eyes widened at the implication "No Master Yoda. It's just… wouldn't I be breaking the code being a princess and all?"

Yoda hmmed, eyeing Lanae, "An interesting situation this is obey you must political protocol. Follow the force you must. Lead you astray it will not."

"Yes Master Yoda." He smiled, the gleam was back in her eyes, and the pain that had been radiating from her slightened.

"Answered my question you have not."

Lanae stopped and knelt before him "It would be my honor to be your apprentice."

He nodded to her. "Meditate everyday you must. With your saber work you must. Forget you cannot the force to exercise."

"Yes master" she hesitated "I don't have a lightsaber though."

Yoda rapped her angle with his Gimer stick. "Interrupt her master a padawan should not." Lanae looked suitable ashamed so he continued "A lightsaber for you Master Windu has made. Saddened he was that he himself could not train you." Lanae looked awed. "Come come, continue on we must." Lanae stood again and continued to follow Master Yoda down to the landing pad.

"Thank you Master, will you thank Master Windu for me?"

"Do this I will." They walked on in silence until they reached the ship. Yoda gestured for Lanae to kneel again. And he carefully braided her padawan braid. "Difficult the life of a Jedi, very difficult will it be for you. Faith I have that succeed you will."

"Thank you Master." Yoda handed Lanae her new lightsaber.

"Strange things the force asks of us, stranger things will it yet ask. Understand we may not, but obey we must." He paused "Time for you to go it is. May the force be with you my young padawan."

"May the force be with you Master."

With a final bow Lanae turned and boarded the ship. Yoda remained in the hangar until it departed. As it left he was joined by Master Windu.

"A Jedi, a politician, and a princess. She will be a very busy girl."

"Doubt you my apprentice?"

"No. She will be a great Jedi."

Yoda nodded, "Indeed."

It had been nearly two years since he had left the temple for Bandomeer. Obi-Wan was excited now, he was returning home. After nearly blowing himself up and becoming Qui-Gon's apprentice the two of them had gone on several missions, never managing to make it back to Coruscant.

He frowned, Bant and Lanae were going to scalp him alive for never having contacted them. He sincerely hoped Master Yoda had informed them that he had been accepted as Qui-Gon's apprentice, if not they would think he was still on Bandomeer as a farmer. His frown deepened, yep, Bant and Lanae would murder him.

Qui-Gon looked at him "We will have a short meeting with the Council and then you will be free to find your friends."

Obi-Wan beamed "Thank you Master."

The council meeting was relatively straightforward. Although Obi-Wan couldn't help but feel uncomfortable under the scrutiny of so many masters. Although Obi-Wan suspected that was probably one of their intentions.

Master Windu concluded the meeting. "That will be all, May the force be with you." Obi-Wan bowed to the council before following Qui-Gon to the door.

"Padawan Kenobi." Obi-Wan nearly jumped, but turned again to face Master Windu who had stood and headed toward them. Obi-Wan was surprised when Master Windu merely handed him something, looking down he saw a friendship knot, and was suddenly confused. Master Windu laughed, "It's not from me," a sad look crossed his face "Your friend Bant Erin will explain for you."

"Thank you Master Windu." Obi-Wan turned again and left the room feeling very confused.

He found Reeft, Garen and Bant in the room of a thousand fountains. He trotted over and sat down casually next to Bant, they glanced over at him.

"Hey" they chorused then returned to their conversation. About five seconds later Bant shrieked and turned back to him "Obi-Wan?"

Obi-Wan was bowled over by the Mon Calamari who seemed very happy to see him.

"What are you doing here? How long will you be here? How are you?" Bant was literally spouting out questions without a pause. Garen and Reeft were laughing, but Obi-Wan could see the questions in their eyes as well.

"Qui-Gon accepted me as his apprentice on Bandomeer. We've been on missions ever since, I haven't had the opportunity to contact the temple since then, Qui-Gon told Master Yoda that he had accepted me. And Qui-Gon felt that contacting the temple would distract me from our missions." He hesitated before giving them a sheepish smile. "You aren't mad at me are you?"

Garen grinned at him "We're furious, we thought we would never see you again, and you were out there doing Jedi like stuff for the past two years. But since you're here now," his grin got bigger "well, we'll forgive you for now."

Garen and Reeft both joined in on the hug Bant was still giving him. "Tonight is going to be the most awesome night ever!"

Obi-Wan smiled at them, this was just like old times. Almost. "What class is Lanae in right now?"

The smiles on his friends faded a little. Bant sighed, "Lanae's gone."

"Gone? What do you mean gone?" He felt sudden apprehension.

Garen immediately shook his head, "Don't worry it's nothing bad."

Reeft took over "Lanae returned to Macinar a month ago."

Obi-Wan just stared at them. "Why?"

Bant gave a sad smile, "We never actually got a chance to ask her, she left without telling anyone, much like you tried to do, but Master Windu told us that the people of Macinar wanted her to return and help with the government."

"She wanted that?" Obi-Wan was surprised

There was a sad look in Reeft's eyes. "Master Windu said it was really hard for her. But the people of Macinar were convinced that it was her duty."

"He said that it was like giving your dream to live the dream of someone else." Garen looked sad. Obi-Wan had no trouble imagining Lanae doing something like that in the name of doing her duty. For a seven year old she had been very particular about doing her duty.

They sat there for a moment in silent contemplation. "Lanae would smack us if she knew we were sitting her moping. Let's enjoy tonight, we never know when we'll get a chance to do this again."

Obi-Wan grinned, "Time for another holo-vid marathon!"

It turned out that the people of Macinar had more sense than Lanae had initially thought. They didn't expect a nine-year old to be a representative of Macinar, they expected a sixteen year old to be their representative. Lanae groaned, they wanted her to spend the next seven years learning how to be a senator. For the last month she had undergone tests to see how advanced she was so they could set up a curriculum. It was a smart plan.

Lanae frowned, this lesson however was beyond pointless. Her diplomacy lessons at the Jedi Temple had prepared her more than they had expected so those lessons were now being put on hold while they taught her… other things.

For the past week or so they had been giving her fashion lessons. They called it "Senator Appearances 101". She didn't care about her appearance. She missed the Jedi Temple where a ponytail was not only an acceptable hairstyle but an encouraged hairstyle. When she had arrived for her first lesson with her hair in a ponytail and dressed in her Jedi Initiate tunic her tutor had immediately escorted her to the room they had set up for her before her arrival.

"Look in the closet."

"I already did." The night before she had made a quick examination of the room she had been given, the closet was full of what appeared to be very expensive and very nice clothing. She had closed that door immediately. She preferred the comfort of her tunic to the decidedly uncomfortable looking dresses.

"Change into one of the dresses."

"What's the point? I'm just taking lessons?"

"Princess, just get dressed in one of the dresses."

Lanae frowned, she hated when they called her princess, first off, she didn't like being thought of as a princess, secondly, they used it to infer whatever they were asking her to do was her "duty". Stupid duty.

Since that day she had not been allowed to wear her tunic unless she was practicing her lightsaber. Instead she was forced, er, encouraged, to wear dresses more appropriate her station. And that wasn't the only thing they were now forcing, ahem, encouraging her to do. She was currently being taught the proper way to style her hair. And while she found that some of the less elaborate hairstyles could be considered sensible, the majority of them were not. Surely no sane person would deem it necessary to stick a dozen pins into their head.

She frowned, she was being foolish. It was always important to take every lesson and discover how it could benefit her. And she would… eventually.

But for now, she would go to her next class, they hadn't told her what she would be learning as of yet though. Which could only be bad.

She was right. She had entered the room to find Senator Prongs sitting at the table with four girls… her decoys. She had opposed… vehemently. And been completely ignored.

"I do not need decoys."

"Decoys are here for your protection, it is not a punishment." Senator Prongs tried to soothe me.

"This is ridiculous! I have been trained to protect myself, I have been trained to protect others. Not let others put themselves in danger for me! It goes against who I am!"

"And these girls are training to be your protection." Senator Prongs looked frustrated, "and they will be your protection whether you want it or not princess."

Lanae kept her face calm "All five of us will be given lessons in self defense, hand to hand fighting, and blaster training. And that is non-negotiable." She stared at Senator Prongs, daring him to contradict her. Finally he nodded, "That would be acceptable" then with a final sigh of exasperation he left the room.

Lanae turned to the girls sitting at the table, they had removed their hoods during the argument and Lanae found herself facing four girls with red hair and pale complexions, although she noted that they all looked several years older than her.

"I'm Lanae and you are?"

"Luna"

"Aurora"

"Gwen"

And I'm Jinx"

There was a moment of awkward silence. "So, how did you get roped into this decoy business."

Gwen spoke up, "It was an honor to have an opportunity to be handmaiden to the princess, we were all volunteers."

At the word handmaiden Lanae gave an inward cringe, that word was not good. Lanae glanced them over, "I can't imagine too much opposition, you all do look rather similar to me."

Jinx grinned, "Actually all of us dyed our hair, and soon we'll get colored eye pieces."

"You changed your appearance to look like someone you aren't, doesn't that bother you a little bit?"

Luna looked at her wide-eyed "It's not like you're ugly or anything. Anyways, you saved our planet, and many of our families, and there was nothing in it for you. We might be changing our appearance but our families are being paid for our service, we are constantly with friends, our job is to protect a princess, that let's face it, will probably protect herself better than we ever could." Luna paused "and that same princess just provided the means for us to learn to protect ourselves, there's not really a downside to this situation."

Aurora groaned, "There's a downside all right, we have to take classes." She shuddered at the last word.

"Classes?"

Gwen sighed "The four of us need to take basic diplomacy classes, and all five of us need to be trained in the art of decoy deception."

"Joy" She looked at them again, "I realize you all look like me, but you are obviously several years older. That seems like it could be a potential problem."

Jinx shrugged, "We're only two years older, as you get older it will be harder to notice, and anyways when you wear makeup no one will be able to tell.

Lanae groaned, "Makeup?"

Luna laughed, "That was my reaction too, but these three are strangely excited for it."

"Well now that I've been thoroughly depressed, if you don't mind I have some saber practice to get to."

She left the room followed by the four girls, Aurora laughed airily, "We're supposed to stay with you."

Lanae pasted on a smile, "Well that will be fun." She was starting to feel claustrophobic.

Lanae grinned at the weapon in her hand, despite the frustrations she was beginning to feel at her present situation she could feel it all slip away as she twisted and spun with her lightsaber. Master Windu had made one seemingly perfect for her. It was purple, which was less common in the Jedi order, it was the same color as master Windu's own lightsabers. She refused to remember that purple was the color of royalty, instead she focused on the peaceful qualities of purple, it had been said that purple was an optimal color for meditation and peace of mind. Things she desperately needed.

She had been given some training probes that would shoot beams at her, it wasn't a particularly difficult training, and that worried her, how would she ever get better? If she ever had the opportunity to return to Coruscant would she find herself to far behind to ever catch up? That was part of the reason that she was practicing now.

In the past months she had gotten the feeling that her tutors did not approve of her weapon training, they had still yet to give the self defense lessons she had demanded, and were keeping her busy in classes in training from first light til late at night, so she had taken to coming down at night to practice with her saber, do her force practice and meditate. Because she had promised her master that she would do them everyday, and she would not break that promise.

Unfortunately the schedule meant that she got very little sleep, and she could feel that starting to have an effect on her. Going a month with two hours of sleep every night wasn't healthy.

"It has come to our attention that you aren't getting enough sleep." It was the head tutor Lady Cassidy.

Lanae was surprised, it had taken them longer than she had thought it would to notice, she had been following her own schedule for nearly a year and a half and this was the first they had said about it. She supposed it helped that she had devised a method to get a little more sleep so as not to completely loose it. She found that sleeping instead of eating during the lunch and dinner hours helped her to stay reasonably functional, of course she had started loosing weight, she supposed that had help alert them to her digression.

"I am following the schedule I have been given, and am getting enough sleep." She used the term enough very loosely, she didn't think they would agree with her definition of enough.

Senator Prongs looked at her obviously disbelieving, "Well, we have found you a tutor for the classes you insisted upon, we hope that he will be able to convince you to maintain your ACTUAL schedule." Lanae ignored the obvious recrimination, she had a feeling they wanted her to just give up on her Jedi training, but it was one area where they had been extremely unsuccessful, they could force her to wear expensive dresses, do her hair, and wear makeup. But they could not stop her from practicing. In fact she had actually split her practices up, she was now just as proficient fighting in a dress as she was in a tunic. Although her tutors would be distraught upon hearing that.

The door opened to admit her tutor and Lanae could safely say she was shocked. It was Master Windu.

She stood and bowed to him, "Master Windu" she could see the frustration in her tutor's eyes, as princess and senator the Jedi were supposed to bow to her first. Lanae ignored that recrimination as well.

"Princess" Lanae flinched at the term, did that mean they did not want her as a Jedi? Normally a master would refer to her as Padawan Treaty. She looked at him the anxiety in her eyes, and he gave her a reassuring smile. But Lanae was not reassured. "Our class will begin in one hour, if you and your handmaidens would take that time to change into more suitable clothing for our exercises I would be most grateful."

Lanae grinned, at least she wasn't the only one who thought these clothes were impractical.

She bowed again before hurrying away to alert her handmaidens to the change in plans. It would take them longer to change than it would take her, particularly because Lanae was so excited.

She was down in the exercise room in minutes, giving her handmaidens fifty minutes to get here before class started.

"Master Windu" she bowed again as she entered the room. Master Windu nodded to her.

"Padawan Treaty" The relief flooded through her, she was still accepted as a Jedi. "Perhaps before class starts you could show me how much progress you have made."

Lanae nodded to him, suddenly nervous, she was doing her best, but would that be good enough? She pushed away the anxiety and pulled out her lightsaber. Master Windu brought out the probe droids and put them on their hardest setting, and nodded for her to begin.

Mace watched as she began deflecting the shots from the droids, she was doing well, and was likely still at the top of her age group, but he could see that she had not progressed as much as she had before she had left, which didn't surprise him. It had been nearly two years, and the almost eleven year old would be suffering from lack of practical practice.

He watched as she disabled the final droid and turned to face him. He nodded in approval, "Nicely done Padawan Treaty, perhaps you would benefit from a little duel practice." She nodded, but he could see the apprehension in her eyes, she hadn't dueled since she had left Coruscant, and her dueling skills had definitely dropped.

They both got into the ready stance, Mace was the first to move, he went on the offense to check her defense, which was still in good condition, Lanae had always been best at protecting. "Go on offense" they switched around so she was now on the attack, and Mace could see that she definitely needed practice. She was still graceful but he could see several fatal weaknesses. And he could see that she had seen them as well. "You have a tendency to leave your left side open when you attack, shift to the left, it will allow you to attack and stay safe." "Watch your footing" "Be careful with that lunge, you lose your balance" "Follow up on that attack," "Be mindful of your surroundings" "Excellent flip, watch your back though" "Don't lean so much on your right leg" On and on he critiqued her, he watched as she would continue the fight, implementing the new instruction. He was grateful to see that she didn't become frustrated instead she merely focused harder.

She was becoming fatigued and so Mace called a halt to their practice. Her handmaidens would be here soon anyways. "How much sleep are you getting a night."

She immediately hedged "Several hours Master."

He only raised an eyebrow.

"Two hours at night and then an hour at lunch and an hour at dinner."

"And when are you eating lunch and dinner?"

Another uncomfortable shrug "I often skip those meals Master."

"You do realize that depriving yourself of food and sleep will only hinder your progress."

"Yes Master Windu, but I promised my Master I would practice everyday, and I did not want to break my promise."

"Understood. But from now on you will eat all three meals, and I will set a time for you to practice."

"Yes Master Windu." There was a pause "How did you end up as a tutor?"

"The council decided that your skills needed checking, and I volunteered, your tutors agreed to the situation if I agreed to tutor you and your handmaidens in self-defense. I will be here several months before I return to Coruscant." He didn't mention that he had spoken to the tutors about taking her back with him, the tutors were not happy about the idea. But it was their fault she was ready anyway. They had been cramming the girl's schedule far past what was necessary, and in response she had passed the courses they had set up for her.

"That's wonderful Master Windu!" He could see the excitement in her eyes. Before he could respond her four handmaidens entered the room, and he held back a sigh. Teaching teenage girls how to defend themselves did not make it onto his list of favorite things to do. But on the bright side he had no council meetings for several months.

"Use both the blaster and the lightsaber." Lanae was currently deflecting bolts with her lightsaber, Mace watched as she shifted the saber to her left hand and pulled the blaster out of it's spot on her leg. He had to admit it was rather an interesting set up. Lanae was dressed in a fine dress instead of her preferred tunic and was fighting droids with both a lightsaber and a blaster.

She was good at it he noted, she continued to block blasts while she used the blaster to shoot the droids that were attempting to go around her. It allowed her to put them out of commission without waiting for them to fire on her, and did not force her to leave her spot to hit them with her lightsaber. Added to her occasional force push she could put a dozen probe droids out of commission in the matter of a minute without moving from one central location.

If he allowed her to move he figured she could have the droids out even faster, and that was without a blaster. He had been pleased by her progress in the last several months. Her dueling skills had increased exponentially as had her deflection skills. It helped that she had several hours a day when he focused on her lightsaber skills and gave her direct instruction. It would likely have helped any padawan, but Lanae's determination to succeed seemed to push her even farther.

It also helped that Mace had managed to convince her tutors to allow her to practice rather than subtly discourage her. In return she had put even more of an effort into all of her classes. Grateful for the opportunity to be what SHE wanted to be.

Mace frowned, it was coming time for him to leave and it had taken time for him to convince her tutors that it was time for her to leave as well. They had finally capitulated and had decided to send her and her handmaidens to Coruscant a few months after he left. Mace smiled to himself, he had yet to tell Lanae about the opportunity, but he had a feeling that she would gladly accept.


	10. Do I Deserve A Chance?

**AN: From here we are starting to look at JA. However I am having this happen several years after they happened in JA. Just in case there was any confusion. I've been hitting a durasteel writer's block. So wish me luck, and feel free to give constructive advice! And here is the next installment.**

Her heart had nearly broken when she had heard that there had been an attempt on her Master's life. Master Yoda had been in the room of a thousand fountains when the bridge had exploded, nearly taken Yoda's life. It had not, but it frightened her. Lanae frowned, it saddened her to return to the temple to find it in such disarray.

Her arrival had been kept quiet, the temple was dangerous, and Yoda had decided that it would be prudent to keep the girl's presence unknown, although Lanae was not sure of the reasons.

Master Yoda returned from his council meeting accompanied by Master Windu. They were talking quietly. "The boy's actions were rash, he endangered the lives of those children." Master Windu seemed frustrated, "I don't know if we can accept him back into the temple. He is impulsive, and that makes him dangerous."

"Impulsive Obi-Wan is, a difficult time this is."

Lanae hesitated, she wasn't sure what was going on, and didn't know if it was her right to ask. As though sensing the questions she wouldn't ask Master Windu turned to her. "Your friend Obi-Wan left the Jedi order to help a group called the young bring peace to their planet. Obi-Wan returned and has asked us to accept him back, we are not sure we can trust someone who would leave the Jedi Order so easily."

Lanae didn't say anything, Obi-Wan! She hadn't seen him in four and a half years, she had thought that he was on Bandomeer! What was going on? "He was accepted as an apprentice?"

Master Windu almost laughed, "Of course, it's been four and a half years since you've heard from him, on Bandomeer Obi-Wan saved Master Jinn's life, Master Jinn accepted him as his apprentice, the two of them were on constant missions for two years, they came back to the temple for a short time about a month after you left. They have been back much more frequently since that first time. A short while ago we sent Master Jinn and Padawan Kenobi to rescue Master Tahl on the planet Melida-Daan, which is where Obi-Wan decided to leave the order." He stopped for a moment and then added begrudgingly "Obi-Wan did succeed in bringing peace to the planet, but it does not excuse the ease in which he left the order, it sheds doubt on his commitment."

Lanae paused thoughtfully, "I left the Jedi Order. You allowed me to stay, does that shed doubt on my commitment."

Yoda laughed, "A point she has, doubt her we do not."

"Yes, but you were trying to do your duty, Obi-Wan was…" he trailed off and Lanae broke in.

"With all due respect Master Windu, it seems that Obi-Wan was trying his best to do his duty too." She glanced at Yoda "Sometimes the force asks strange things of us. Some that we may not understand, but we must follow the force anyways."

Yoda smiled, "Trust Obi-Wan I do, the right choice he tries to make. Accept him again I believe we should."

Master Windu sighed, "I know, I think most of the council wants to accept him again, but there is a matter of principle to consider."

"Can I see Bant, Reeft, Garen and Obi-Wan soon?" She asked, trying to change the subject.

"Reeft is out on a mission, you can see the others when the culprit is caught." Master Windu answered quickly. Lanae smiled to herself, sometimes Master Windu was bossier than her own Master. Master Yoda seemed to be thinking something along the same lines for he was now trying to hide a smile.

Communications had just come back up. Lanae waited impatiently with her Master to hear word from Qui-Gon, they were soon rewarded. "The temple is safe Master Yoda," there was a slight pause "Xanatos escaped, and in an accident Bruck Chun died." Lanae almost stopped breathing, "Bant has been rescued and all systems are back online. Obi-Wan and I will stop in with the council to make our final report tomorrow morning."

"Understand I do, speak with you then I will." Master Yoda turned the comm off a sad look in his eyes. "Sad it is to lose one so young."

Lanae merely sat there in shock. Her mind reeling, before it came to a conclusion. "Obi-Wan was there when Bruck died wasn't he?"

Master Yoda did not respond for a moment "Likely it is."

Lanae did not respond to that, she knew Obi-Wan was likely blaming himself. "Qui-Gon is going to go after Xanatos isn't he."

"Likely it is, support this we should not."

"Obi-Wan will go with him, won't he."

Yoda smiled at her, "Know him well you do, likely it is."

Lanae hesitated, wondering why she was even about to say this, it was foolish and pointless. "Will you send me with them?"

Yoda looked at her appraisingly "Wish to help Obi-Wan you do, know the pain of death you do, help him you would. Dangerous it will be. Hmm."

Lanae didn't answer, she did want to help Obi-Wan, she felt as though it was of utmost importance that she did so, and she knew that Qui-Gon would leave soon and the opportunity would pass by.

Yoda shook his head "Smart it is not, but necessary it might be. Speak with the council I will. Ready yourself."

Lanae fought a grin, if Yoda was telling her to get ready then it appeared that he had already decided on an answer. Now he just needed to convince the council and Qui-Gon.

"I do not understand your hesitation," Qui-Gon said. "Xanatos is a powerful enemy of the Jedi."

"Enemy of yours, I think he is," Yoda said, his gray-blue eyes intent on Qui-Gon. "Fruitless, a search may be. Wasted energy, it is. And too much anger I sense in you, Qui-Gon. Xanatos will reappear. Meet him you shall. But seek it you shall not."

"I feel that now is the time to find him, I do not seek him out in anger or for revenge, but he must be brought to justice before he wrecks even more terror."

Qui-Gon watched as the council members shared a look, one that told him that they had already known what he was going to say.

"The council does not like you suggestion, but we will support it on one condition."

That surprised Qui-Gon, he had not expected their support and had prepared himself for disappointment. He frowned, he wasn't going to like this condition.

"We wish for you to take Padawan Kenobi with you," Qui-Gon nodded, that was an acceptable condition "as well as Master Yoda's own apprentice." Qui-Gon looked up in surprise, he hadn't known that Yoda had an apprentice. Obi-Wan appeared just as surprised.

"Those conditions are satisfactory." He turned to Yoda, "If you would have your apprentice ready to meet us at the landing dock early tomorrow morning that would be appreciated."

Master Yoda smiled, "Be there she will."

Qui-Gon left the room Obi-Wan following him. It was a good sign that they wanted Obi-Wan to come with him, while Qui-Gon was still struggling to open up and trust Obi-Wan again, it meant that the council was more than willing to accept Obi-Wan back. Although Obi-Wan wouldn't see it that way. Part of him would likely suspect that they merely wanted him out of the temple. Qui-Gon sighed, that would be something he would have to address.

"Will you be ready to go by tomorrow morning?" He asked Obi-Wan.

"I'll be at the landing pad early."

"Good, I've already found transport with a luxury transport, we'll be going to Telos, Xanatos's home planet, posed as tourists."

Obi-Wan nodded, then glanced at Qui-Gon "Do you know who Master Yoda's apprentice is?"

Qui-Gon shook his head, "I wasn't even aware that he had taken an apprentice, which is odd, normally Yoda's apprentices are well acknowledged."

Obi-Wan grinned "Well I suppose we'll see tomorrow morning won't we."

He found Bant and Garen shortly after, they both looked excited about something, although both refused to tell him about it.

"I heard that you and Qui-Gon are being sent on a mission together." Garen stated conversationally.

"How did you know that? I haven't told anyone." Bant just grinned at him mysteriously.

"Don't worry," her grin widened "it will make sense tomorrow."

Garen looked at them, "You two can have fun together, there's someone that I want to spend some time with tonight." Obi-Wan noticed that Bant looked a little put out at that.

"Why do you get to?"

"You got to this morning."

"So?"

"It's my turn now."

"What are you two talking about?" Obi-Wan interrupted frustrated.

He was greeted with two mysterious grins, "You'll see tomorrow!" they chorused. Obi-Wan frowned, a little annoyed. But he knew from experience that when they got this way there would be no getting answers from them.

Lanae grinned, her handmaidens were ticked with her for going on a mission. They felt that they were supposed to go with her, and she had told them that they couldn't it was Jedi business. They hadn't taken that answer very graciously.

Lanae was silently relieved. She had grown to like the four girls, particularly Luna. But she was ready to leave behind the life of a Princess aspiring to be a senator. She hadn't wanted the life in the first place. She supposed that was the only reason she was still a Jedi. She recalled that there were a few similar examples previously. Jedi's who had been asked to be more than just a Jedi in order to do their duty. She wondered if it was as hard for them as it was for her.

She quickly abandoned that train of thought. It would merely serve to depress her. She waited with Masters Yoda and Windu for Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon to show up. She was actually really surprised that she had been allowed to accompany them on this mission. Although she also understood exactly why. She had experienced first hand how guilt over a death could seriously harm one. She knew that both Masters were well aware that Obi-Wan was currently suffering from guilt over Bruck's death, even though it wasn't his fault. She was going to help him. She hoped.

Obi-Wan followed Qui-Gon down to the landing pad, he could see Masters Yoda and Windu as well as a short figure he assumed was master Yoda's apprentice.

Master Qui-Gon stopped in front of Master Yoda, "We're prepared to go, is your apprentice ready?"

Yoda nodded "May the force be with you." Then he turned and left. Which confused Obi-Wan he would have thought that Yoda would have at least introduced his apprentice. Qui-Gon seemed equally surprised.

He hesitated a moment before gesturing for both apprentices to follow him to their transport. Qui-Gon glanced behind him to where the two apprentices followed, "This transport is merely taking us to our official transport, where we will be traveling as tourists."

They boarded the transport and Qui-Gon at least waited for the transport to take off before turning to the silent apprentice. "I'm Qui-Gon Jinn and this is Obi-Wan Kenobi. Obi-Wan stepped forward, watching the silent form.

The apprentice nodded, before lifting her hands and lowering the hood. Obi-Wan was greeted by a girl with long red hair and bright green eyes. "And I'm Lanae Treaty. It's nice to see both of you again."

Obi-Wan stared in surprise. Lanae? He thought she was on Macinar? What was she doing here? And she was Yoda's apprentice? When had this happened?

She grinned at him "After four and a half years since the last time we've seen each other all you can do is stand there?"

"Lanae?" He said it hesitantly, as though unsure. Qui-Gon looked equally surprised.

"I thought you were in training to be a senator?"

Lanae frowned, "I suppose you could say I am following in the footprints of Master Grangefield." Obi-Wan nodded, Master Grangefield had been a Jedi who had been asked to be both a Jedi and a Senator, from what Obi-Wan had understood there had been rather extenuating circumstances. It made sense to him. It seemed to satisfy Qui-Gon as well, because he nodded and gestured for the two of them to get comfortable as he turned away and found himself a seat.

Obi-Wan stared at her, she would be eleven now, five years his junior. But he wasn't surprised that she had managed to land herself on a mission that shouldn't have even been happening. It was such a Lanae-type thing to do. He strode forward and hugged her. "It's been such a long time." She was hugging him back tightly.

"I know, I'm so glad you're here. I didn't even know you had left Bandomeer until a few days ago. I was so happy." She grinned at him.

Suddenly something clicked, "You spent last night hanging out with Garen and yesterday morning hanging out with Bant didn't you!" She grinned innocently at him, "No wonder the two of them wouldn't tell me anything." He glanced at her "Did you tell them not to tell me."

"I may or may not have suggested such a course of action." She smiled at him, "I knew I was going to see you today, and this seemed like such a great way to surprise you."

He grinned at her, "Well you succeeded."

She grinned back at him, "I figured as much from the way you stood there stock still gaping, it looked as though you had seen a ghost."

He laughed, some of the weight that had been resting on him lifted.

He watched Bruck fall, he kept reaching out trying to catch him but his arms moved slowly and he couldn't get there in time. He heard Bruck accuse him, blaming him for his death, even as he lay there with his neck broken at an odd angle. He wanted to cry out, tell him that he had tried to help him. Really he had! It was no use. Bruck continued to blame him, not only for his death, but for the death of Cerasi, for the death of Bant, blaming him, ridiculing him. Obi-Wan continued to deny it, but inside he knew that Bruck was right. Those deaths were his fault.

"Shh, wake up Obi-Wan." He felt someone shake him, "Wake up."

He jerked up to find Lanae next to him. They had arrived at the luxury transport. Qui-Gon was waiting for the two of them. Obi-Wan felt ashamed, he should not have fallen asleep, but he had not slept well recently and had needed it.

He followed Lanae and Qui-Gon onto the transport and was immediately awed and shocked by the extreme luxury. Who needed all this luxury. Lanae didn't seemed to be awed by it, she seemed a little frustrated with it. Which surprised him, he would have thought she was used to luxury by now.

Qui-Gon immediately found a seat that afforded him a view of the rest of the transport while remaining quiet and secluded. Lanae and Obi-Wan followed him, although he told them they could go and enjoy themselves if they wished.

Obi-Wan sat, tired and troubled. His dream haunting him.

"It's not your fault." The whisper was quiet, and he turned to see Lanae looking at him, "I heard you while you were sleeping, you kept saying it was your fault. It's not."

He just looked at her, "I was fighting him when he died. I'm the reason he died… I don't deserve this chance the council is giving me, I'm dangerous. It is my fault."

Lanae looked at him for a second. He noticed her bite her lip. "Do you think I'm a bad person? Cruel? Evil? Do you think I deserve a chance?"

Obi-Wan looked at her surprise. Lanae was certainly a good person. He wasn't sure where she was going with this. "Of course I think you're a good person."

She stared at him, "You fought with Bruck with the intention of saving Bant, it's not like you fought him with the intention of him dying, right"

He shook his head. And she laughed bitterly.

"Well if that means you deserve to be outcasted than I should be too."

"You don't understand, I fought with anger."

"Were you angry when he died?"

"I don't know." Didn't she understand that he was unsure now of his feelings then, he thought he had removed the anger, but had he really?

Lanae stared at him, "Obi-Wan, you aren't a bad person, if you could've you would have saved him."

He just shook his head.

"I killed my father." Obi-Wan's head jerked up to stare at her. Out of the corner of his eye he thought he saw Qui-Gon's eyes look up at the two of them. It was obvious he could hear them.

"What?" He was shocked, Lanae a killer?

"I took actions that I knew would end in my father's death. Even worse, I didn't take those actions soon enough, people died because I hesitated and was unsure." There was pain in her eyes, and Obi-Wan realized this was the first time she had ever said anything more than the basics about her past. "Look at me Obi-Wan. If one of us deserves to be kicked out of the order and shunned, it isn't you."

He reached out to her, unsure of what to do. She looked at him again. "You feel guilty for his death, and that's natural. But Obi-Wan don't you see? You needed to save Bant, but you would have kept Bruck alive if it were possible. I know this, and you know this." She slipped to her knees in front of him. "For the longest time I blamed my father's death on myself, I blamed myself for all of the people that he killed that I could not save. In the end I took the action that would save my people, even if it did mean sacrificing my father's life." She stared at him, "Does that make me a bad person Obi-Wan."

He suddenly flashed back to a night years ago, when he stared into the eyes of a five-year old who had been failed by the world. "No Lanae, no it doesn't."

"I won't lie to you Obi-Wan, there were times when I hated my father. But his death was not because I hated him. I did what I needed to be done to save my people. Obi-Wan, you did what you had to do to save Bant. And if you could you would have saved him. It's not your fault. I promise Obi-Wan, it's not."

He looked down at her, and he could feel some of the weight leave his shoulders, it wasn't healed yet, and he knew that, and she knew that, but she had shown him that he could heal. He didn't have to carry this burden. Silently he wondered if even after all this time she was truly healed.

"And for the record Obi-Wan, I will never censure you for doing what's right." She smiled at him, and Obi-Wan was sure she meant Melida-Daan. He had stayed because he had felt it was the right thing for him to do. It had been impulsive, but he had never doubted the rightness of it. And it seemed that neither did she.

"When did you get so wise?" He grinned at her.

"Me? I've always been wise." She stuck her tongue out at him. "The question is, when will you get wise?"

Qui-Gon spoke for the first time, "Now Lanae, let's not get greedy asking for a miracle."

Obi-Wan cried out in fake outrage. "What is this? A conspiracy to ridicule me?" Lanae laughed. And for the first time since Qui-Gon had left him on Melida-Daan Obi-Wan was sure things would be alright.

Qui-Gon glanced at Lanae, it would be simple enough for him and Obi-Wan to look busy here in the loading bay, but he wasn't sure exactly how Lanae would get through. Lanae herself frowned at the loading bay. Then turned to them.

"Meet you on the other side." Qui-Gon frowned he would have to trust that she had a way of getting to where the men were picking up the boxes without drawing to much attention to herself.

"Come Obi-Wan."

Lanae drifted off as Qui-Gon lifted a box and began to carry it back the way it had come. Following his old rule, look like you belong and look busy and people will assume that you belong.

He could hear Lanae behind him. "Excuse me sir, but I'm a little confused, my parents told me they would meet me by the kitchen of the transport. But I got here and they weren't here. Do you know how I can get out of here?" He could hear her, she sounded frightened and confused and he grinned, she wasn't supposed to be here, and so she was going to use that to her advantage.

"Follow me little missy, I have a shortcut out of here, maybe you can find your parents outside." Qui-Gon glanced behind him to see Obi-Wan stifling a laugh. Obviously the thought of Lanae as a little missy was funny to him.

Qui-Gon set down the box and continued on his way. Hoping that Lanae would catch up with them soon. It was moments later that she joined him and Obi-Wan outside the transport area, the three of them mixed in with the tourists coming out of the transport.

"Hey there, stop." Qui-Gon frowned, he had no doubt they were talking about them. He pretended not to hear them, they had done nothing wrong, there was no need for them to react.

Lanae spoke up conversationally, "If it comes down to it I can run." Qui-Gon didn't doubt it, but could she outrun several grown men was the question. He and Obi-Wan could do it easily.

"You two, stop!" So, they didn't realize that Lanae was part of their group. Interesting.

He could see two police officers now, obviously tracking them, they were getting rather close. After a moment's hesitation he nodded to the two apprentices and they broke into a run, slipping through the crowd without so much as bumping into a shoulder.

He saw the two police officers begin to run as well. The three of them tried to evade the officers for several minutes, even jumping onto a rook to do so. The police were persistent though.

Finally the three of them entered a large dome, there was an event called Katharsis going on, the game put Qui-Gon on edge. From his seat he could see more police obviously searching for him and Obi-Wan. He gestured for Obi-Wan and Lanae to leave this row, they would need to leave the dome. But it should keep the officers busy looking for them for a while longer.

The closest exit had an alarm on it though, they would have to go up. He frowned, the police had spotted them. The game was up.

"Would the three of you like a seat? I have room." Qui-Gon looked over to see a man gesturing to a box where there was indeed extra room.

Qui-Gon nodded, "Why thank you." He hurried in smoothly followed by the two apprentices. "It was difficult to find a seat."

The guy laughed, the box moved up into the air where they could watch better, they were now away from the police. "I know, especially when there are police after you." Qui-Gon noticed both Obi-Wan and Lanae tense. But the guy merely laughed "Don't worry about it, there isn't much crime on Telos, the police tend to like to hound people for things as simple as throwing away Muja juice. Even innocent guys like me get hounded." The guy laughed "Call me Den."


	11. Watch You Die

**AN: As always if you recognize the character it doesn't belong to me.  
****And I am sorry it is taking me so long to update, what with moving, starting college, and getting Corneal Ulcers there hasn't been anytime for ANYTHING (You know other than homework, work, and sleeping. And sometimes not even those!)**

Obi-Wan was frustrated, there was a price on both his and Qui-Gon's heads. They had nearly been ambushed, he had been forced to follow Den through a garbage chute and through a septic pipe. And the guy was a criminal, he had even admitted it to them. And Qui-Gon trusted the guy! He didn't deny that it hurt that Qui-Gon would trust a criminal more than he would trust Obi-Wan. As though sensing his frustration Lanae reached out and put her hand on his arm, calming him down. He grinned at her, she was a good friend, and more patient than he was.

"Did you enjoy crawling through the septic pipe." He teased her. They were now in a hidden apartment with a friend of Dens named Andra. Although he wasn't sure friend was the right word. The two of them looked like they were going to strangle each other.

"As long as all the grime isn't on my face I'll survive." He glanced at her, before taking some of the grime on his tunic and wiping it on her face. She retaliated by yanking on his braid with a glare.

"So what do you think of Den and Andra?"

"I like them." She grinned for a moment "Even if Den is a bit of a character."

He nodded, he liked Den too, not that he would ever admit it. "I think it's a great things what Andra is doing with POWER." Andra was the leader of a group that was trying to keep the sacred places of Telos out of control of Unify. "Although I admit that I'm surprised that Den is going to help us break into Unify."

Lanae frowned, "I'm pretty sure that there is something in it for him that he just hasn't mentioned yet." Obi-Wan considered that, it did sound like Den.

"I guess we'll see tomorrow."

"Oh you bet we will."

The computers froze, and Lanae felt her insides freeze along with it. That wasn't good. Den stood up, "You three stay here, I'm going to go see what's going on."

Den slipped out the door, Lanae glanced at Qui-Gon. He glanced around "We have to get out of here."

Obi-Wan looked at him surprised "But we can't abandon Den!"

Qui-Gon just shook his head "He already abandoned us."

It was too late though, they could hear footsteps approaching them quickly. "Don't draw your lightsabers." Just as Qui-Gon gave that last command a group of men burst through the door.

Lanae sighed, perfect, just perfect.

They were taken swiftly to a central booking station. Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan were immediately recognized as Galactic Criminals. They stopped however when they got to Lanae. She wasn't a Galactic Criminal, but she had been with them when they had been caught in Unify. She grinned at the officers. "You're going to lock me up right."

The officer glared at her, "You were caught trespassing in Unify."

"Well then you might as well lock me up with them, it's not as difficult as you are trying to make it." The officer looked at her. Before turning to his fellow officers.

"She's got a point, just throw the lot of them together." Which they promptly did, ignoring Qui-Gon's request to make contact with the temple, obviously galactic criminals didn't have the right to make their one call.

They spent the night in the cell, discussing what they had learned. Unfortunately there wasn't muchto discuss. All they knew was that Unify had way to many messages about completely pointless garbage, and that Den hadn't actually been looking at Unify files at all. He had been looking at Katharsis files. None of them were sure what he had been looking for, but they intended to find out. If they got out of here.

The door opened and the three of them turned to face the door. Several officers came through. They grabbed her and jerked her painfully through the door. Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan both jumped to their feet. "Where are you taking her?"

"None of your business." Lanae began to struggle, but there were to many hands pulling her along. She was rewarded by a jab from a vibroblade. She felt her leg go limp from the force.

She felt herself get thrown to the ground. She immediately jerked herself up, ignoring the fiery pain in her left leg. She found herself face to face with none other than Xanatos.

"I have it from here. Bind her hands." Immediately her hands were pulled roughly behind her back and cuffed together.

Xanatos grabbed her arm and began to pull her along. He pushed her into a speeder without saying a word and began to drive off. She felt a sudden fear. Where was he taking her?

An expensive building it turned out. Again without saying anything he grabbed her and pulled her along behind him. They entered what she assumed were his quarters.

"What do you want with me?" She spat venomously.

He merely smiled, "Oh I'll keep you here for awhile, mostly to remind Qui-Gon of his failure." He reached forward and caressed her face mockingly, "But unlike your friends, you're actually worth something, I hear you're a valuable hostage."

She glared at him.

He laughed, "No answer? Hmm, perhaps I should skip the hostage, you would be worth just as much as a slave, particularly when you get older." She continued to glare at him.

And he leered at her, "But first, I'll allow you to watch Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan die. Won't that be pleasant?"

Lanae refused to let the fear she felt show on her face. Xanatos laughed at her. Again he grabbed her roughly before hooking the cuffs on her arms to a shelf. It forced her into a kneeling position. She refused to answer him, refused to give him the satisfaction of knowing that she was afraid.

He got close to her all of a sudden. "It's no good, I can feel your fear. There is no escape for you, and there is no escape for your friends."

He left her then, as he left she heard him lock the door, locking her alone with her fears.

They had taken her. Obi-Wan was filled with fear. Lanae was gone, and there was nothing he could do about it.

"I'm sorry." He looked up, what was Qui-Gon talking about, it wasn't his fault. "If it weren't for me, both of you would be safe back at the temple."

Obi-Wan shook his head, "Neither of us would regret this. We came because we felt that this is where we were supposed to be."

Qui-Gon looked at him sadly, "Even though you're cold, hungry, and imprisoned, and she is missing somewhere, no doubt in equally dismal accomodations."

"We both made the decision to come."

Another sad smile, "I've been very hard on you lately. Especially since Melida-Daan."

Obi-Wan shook his head, "No more than I deserved."

"No Lanae was right, I should never blame you for doing what you feel the force is telling you is right. I understand that now. When we get back to the temple, I'll help the council see that too. You are on probation right now, so you can't be my apprentice, but do not doubt that you are my padawan. I know that." Qui-Gon paused, "He's here."

Moments later Obi-Wan felt it too, there was a dark presence rippling out towards them. And then the door opened to reveal Xanatos,

"What a pleasure seeing you both here." Qui-Gon just stared at him. And Xanatos continued "Of course, it is with great sorrow that I am here to inform you that you're trial has taken place, and that you have both been found guiltily."

Obi-Wan glared at him, "We deserve to be present at our own trial, that's not fair!"

Xanatos laughed, "Life's not fair, hasn't anyone told you that. Particularly not for a little girl with red hair."

Obi-Wan felt his insides go cold, Xanatos had Lanae.

Xanatos grinned cruelly "Imagine her distress as she watches the two of you die in front of her, of course that will seem like a cake walk to being sold as a slave. The judges were touched by her plight, kidnapped at a young age and brainwashed to think that helping you was the right thing to do. It's only by the quick intervention of Telos that she won't be permanently damaged by your cruel machinations. The judges decided the best course of action was to put the young deluded girl in my ever so tender care." The cruel smirk never left his face.

Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan said nothing. And Xanatos smiled cruelly, "But all that will have to wait, we have an execution to attend."

Xanatos strode out and a dozen men poured in. Obi-Wan sat frozen, the three of them were going to die. For a moment he pitied Lanae, at least his death would be short and quick, Lanae's would not.

The injection hurt and Lanae could feel the substance travel through her body, it caused her muscles to go weak and her limbs to become heavy. She glared at her captor, and Xanatos smirked "We wouldn't want you to try something foolish now would we?"

Lanae glared, "If you think that's enough to stop me think again."

Xanatos laughed and gestured for a soldier to grab her and take her to a platform. She was left there as Xanatos strode past her to the front of the platform. He turned toward her, "Now watch as your two miserable friends die,"

An inkling of horror permeated her brain, he was trying to destroy Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan, her presence was to remind them of their failure, they would die and leave her in the hands of this monster.

She struggled to pull herself away from the man in front of her, fighting the hopelessness that threatened to overwhelm her. She watched as a squadron of men appeared surrounding Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan. The two of them were led to a cage, Lanae quickly examined it, they cage would be hoisted into the air. Once in the air. She shuddered, they would be beheaded and their heads would roll down a slant until they faced the mob of people. The mob roared loudly, and Lanae shivered in revulsion, how could the people stand to watch this? What was wrong with them?

Lanae continued to pull herself away fighting the drugs in her body. She struggled to get away from this madness, the inevitable horror of death. Her eyes were locked on Obi-Wan as he was led to the cage.

Obi-Wan's head turned and he locked eyes with her, he gave her a sad smile, before it was quickly replaced to a quiet stoicism. Her struggle to get off the platform increased, she had recognized that look in Obi-Wan's eyes. He knew they were going to die, that all three of them were going to die. She returned his sad smile.

She felt someone sneak up behind her "Shh, come on, we need to get to the speeder" She turned, and stifled a gasp of disbelief, Dan was crouched behind her. He grabbed her up in his arms and hurried the two of them to his speeder.

She glanced behind her, Xanatos was standing their imperiously watching Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon being shoved into their cage, to engrossed in his victory to notice Lanae's escape.

Lanae allowed Dan to put her in front of him on the speeder, curling herself into a small ball so he could control the speeder. They waited nervously for the chance to spring into action. Andra was further forward, she noticed Qui-Gon notice her. Lanae breathed a sigh of relief, Qui-Gon knew that there was a chance to save the two of them and he would take it.

Lanae watched as the cage door slowly swung open and several speeders came forward to prod the two Jedi. Andra's speeder sprang forward and Qui-Gon jumped onto it. She felt Dan fly their speeder forward agilely and Obi-Wan followed Qui-Gons lead landing on the back of their speeder and using his lightsaber to block any blaster fire headed their way.

She paid little attention as Dan flew the three of them through the streets of Telos, all she knew was that for the moment they were all safe.

She let Obi-Wan carry her up into Andra's secret entrance. Her limbs were still heavy and weak. She felt exhausted, fighting the drug had taken its toll on her and she felt herself slowly losing consciousness. The last thing she remembered was Qui-Gon and Andra slipping into the hide out as she rested her head on Obi-Wan's shoulder.

"So, Den, care to explain what makes Katharsis so interesting?" Qui-Gon's voice was cold, and Obi-Wan was secretly glad that he wasn't at the receiving end of the glare that accompanied it.

Andra whirled around on Den. "You weren't even bothering to look up Unify?" A flash of betrayal crossed her face.

Den stuttered. "I wanted to see if it was possible to rig Katharsis." He looked stubbornly at Andra, "You already knew I was a thief, you shouldn't have trusted me."

Andra looked at him coolly. "Well, I won't make that mistake twice." Den flinched.

Qui-Gon stepped in quietly, "And what did you find?"

Den gave Andra another look, "It's already rigged." He paused "By unify. They pick the winner of the games. A small mistake on their competitors bikes to give them the edge they need."

There was a contemplative silence. And Qui-Gon was nodding thoughtfully. "We might be able to use this." He turned to Andra, "Do you think you can call up POWER? We could use some help to tie Katharsis to Unify and Unify to the destruction of the Sacred places of Telos."

Andra shifted uneasily and it was her turn to look ashamed. "I may have been a little dishonest earlier." She hesitated momentarily and glanced at Den "I am POWER, there isn't anyone else left."

"Oh, so little miss Integrity isn't as perfect as she acts." Andra glared at Den.

"I needed your help, the Sacred Pools are being destroyed and no one would do anything."

"Oh, so as long as I have a good reason can I lie all I want?"

Obi-Wan finally spoke up. "Oh give it a rest Den, we need to figure out a plan. Preferably one that won't get us thrown into jail again."

Den glared but both he and Andra moved back from their confrontational stances.

Qui-Gon stood there for a moment, looking thoughtful. "Two of us need to go check the Sacred Pools, we need hard evidence if we want even the slightest chance. The rest ofus will stay here and get Den into the winners box for Katharsis. He'll have to open the doors for us to get our evidence rolling.."

Obi-Wan nodded, "I'll go in the group headed to the Sacred Pools." Qui-Gon looked as though he was about to argue so Obi-Wan continued. "I'm young, and if either Andra or Lanae comes with me we can pass us off as two siblings taking a hike. It's actually probable." He looked at Qui-Gon, almost daring him to try and keep him here.

Qui-Gon nodded. "Fine, I suggest Andra go with you, she knows the countryside, Lanae will stay with Den and I.

He gave Obi-Wan a small reassuring look. "I trust that you'll get everything we need." Obi-Wan felt a thrill at the word trust. Maybe this was going to work after all.

**AN: If you want to make a poor girls day Review! I love feedback!**


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